New website offers licensing database for industry
By CHRISTOPHER MORRIS
After four years of R&D, Sir Groovy, a one-stop music licensing and clearance search engine, has gone live on the Web.
Employing proprietary musicDNA software, the website offers a database of 10,000 pre-cleared tunes from 50 countries for instant licensing to film, TV ads and videogames. Company touts its services as an alternative to laborious song clearances and use of production music.
Project is backed by Wall Street players: founder/CEO Vic Sarjoo, ex-CEO of the Radical Funds, and Harold Vogel, former head of entertainment and media at brokerage Merrill Lynch and possibly the best-known and most-quoted music biz analyst. Co-founder Michael Vassar led company's research team.
Sarjoo said the exchange is designed to enable producers to "locate music more quickly and license it with extremely lower transaction costs." Company's clients include Fox Searchlight Pictures, Discovery Channel, MTV Networks, ESPN and CBS.
Several top music supervisors who acted as pre-startup advisers now hold a stake in the firm. They include Greg Sill ("Friends," "Full House," "ER"), Lakeshore Entertainment music exec Brian McNelis, PJ Bloom ("Glee," "CSI: Miami") and Janet Billig Rich, creator of the Broadway musical "Rock of Ages."
David Leibowitz, former exec VP-general counsel for the RIAA is serving as Sir Groovy chairman.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118009935.html?categoryId=1009&cs=1&nid=2248
By CHRISTOPHER MORRIS
After four years of R&D, Sir Groovy, a one-stop music licensing and clearance search engine, has gone live on the Web.
Employing proprietary musicDNA software, the website offers a database of 10,000 pre-cleared tunes from 50 countries for instant licensing to film, TV ads and videogames. Company touts its services as an alternative to laborious song clearances and use of production music.
Project is backed by Wall Street players: founder/CEO Vic Sarjoo, ex-CEO of the Radical Funds, and Harold Vogel, former head of entertainment and media at brokerage Merrill Lynch and possibly the best-known and most-quoted music biz analyst. Co-founder Michael Vassar led company's research team.
Sarjoo said the exchange is designed to enable producers to "locate music more quickly and license it with extremely lower transaction costs." Company's clients include Fox Searchlight Pictures, Discovery Channel, MTV Networks, ESPN and CBS.
Several top music supervisors who acted as pre-startup advisers now hold a stake in the firm. They include Greg Sill ("Friends," "Full House," "ER"), Lakeshore Entertainment music exec Brian McNelis, PJ Bloom ("Glee," "CSI: Miami") and Janet Billig Rich, creator of the Broadway musical "Rock of Ages."
David Leibowitz, former exec VP-general counsel for the RIAA is serving as Sir Groovy chairman.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118009935.html?categoryId=1009&cs=1&nid=2248
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