Music Reports is an American company that serves organizations seeking expertise and solutions in music rights licensing, administration, and royalty accounting. It was founded in 1995.

History

Music Reports was established to enable broadcasters seeking to reduce music licensing costs. Music Reports developed a per program license and administration service to collect and process television station schedules and revenues, and to automate report preparation and submission. Pursuant to the signing of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization . It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures that control access to...

 in 1998, Music Reports initiated a program of copyright

Copyright

Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...

 licensing for digital music services. In doing so, the company played a significant role in the development of digital media and content rights.

Overview of current services

Founded in 1995, Music Reports provides services in the following areas:

• Administration of American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, Broadcast Music Incorporated
  Broadcast Music Incorporated
  Broadcast Music, Inc. is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed...
  
   and SESAC
  SESAC
  SESAC, originally the Society of European Stage Authors & Composers, is the smallest of the three performance rights organizations in the United States. SESAC was founded in 1930, making it the second-oldest performing rights organization in the U.S. SESAC is also the fastest-growing PRO in the...
  
   per program licenses for television broadcasters.
• Synchronization, master and performing rights
  Performing rights
  Performing rights are the right to perform music in public. It is part of copyright law and demands payment to the music’s composer/lyricist and publisher . Public performance means that a musician or group who is not the copyright holder is performing a piece of music live, as opposed to the...
  
   licensing for broadcasters, film and television producers, and cable programming services.
• Enterprise-level licensing and royalty accounting services for digital media services, mobile device and carrier clients and content owners
• Copyright research and licensing for consumer products companies.
• Strategic consulting services covering both the acquisition of content and content usage rights.

Music Reports has compiled and maintains SONGDEX, a proprietary database

Database

A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...

 of over 12 million music copyrights. Music Reports currently serves as a per program license administrator for local television stations in the United States owned by ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

, CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 and NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

. The company undertakes music rights clearances, licensing and accounting for digital and background music services such as MySpace

MySpace

Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....

. Music Reports provides copyright research, licensing and strategic consulting expertise to established and emerging content and technology businesses such as HSN, as well as American Greetings

American Greetings

American Greetings Corporation, Inc. is the world's largest publicly-traded greeting card company. It is based in Brooklyn, Ohio and sells paper greeting cards, electronic greeting cards, party products , and electronic expressive content...

and other consumer products companies.