Public Funding for Mixcloud Ltd

Mixcloud is an online streaming service, focusing on user-generated content, primarily music. We operate a fair and legal service, with artists and creators at its core. Our policy of putting creators first means that everything we build is designed to give creators more control over their channel, their fans and their business. Recent changes to copyright law have shifted the onus from rights-holders to identify infringement and issue takedown notices, to platforms to identify any infringements made by their users. This is even more challenging in a livestreamed context, as content should be identified in real-time. None of the major platforms, such as Facebook, Twitch or Youtube have embraced these changes. Facebook has instead issued notice to users that they should not use the platform to create a "music listening experience'', with the threat of their accounts being deleted. YouTube and Twitch have effectively ignored the changes to the legal framework. Mixcloud, uniquely, has had content ID and reporting baked in from the outset. Our platform automates the process of content recognition, and matching tracks to rights holders. This means our users can curate copyrighted music legally, and that the creators of that material get paid when their music gets played. Management of copyright has been at the heart of what we do, and this enables user-generated content to legally make use of copyrighted material. For this reason Mixcloud stands out against competing platforms, who are increasingly applying filters to block copyrighted music. This project builds on our Mixcloud Live service, creating new functionality and improving ease of use. Watch this space.

Internet radio has developed organically without agreed protocols, making distribution problematic for radio stations, and discovery a challenge for listeners. The generation of good quality, consistent metadata to describe internet radio content is key to solving this problem and unlocking the medium’s digital future. The output of RadioDeck was a toolkit comprising a browser-based Content Management System into which radio stations and audio producers publish live ‘linear’ or pre-produced ‘on-demand’ radio. The project objectives were: 1. Making radio discoverable: encouraging audio producers to create and align their metadata to make radio fully discoverable online, building on best practice. 2. Opening up a viable market place: growth in discovery of and listening to IP-delivered radio will lead to increased revenue flows across the value chain. 3. Democratising the medium: barriers to entry are lowered, allowing new entrants and plural voices, and stimulating innovation. Some of the project’s outputs will be disseminated through a Creative Commons licence, with the toolkit’s open source status encouraging further evolution.

Through cross-sector collaboration, Radio Connected tackled several interconnected issues that have inhibited internet delivery of radio. The aim was to propose a modular set of applications to better connect internet radio with the growing range of IP-connected devices and to deliver it to users. The project objectives were: 1. Self-publishing: creating a simple user interface with which radio producers can upload programmes 2. Making radio / audio discoverable: developing solutions to allow dynamic tagging of radio / audio via speech and music recognition tools 3. Licensing: developing platform- and database-agnostic solutions to manage the tracking of radio / audio delivered and the reporting to rights holders 4. Delivery across IP Networks: developing a cost effective solution to both store and then deliver hosted radio content, blurring the listener's distinction between live streaming, caching and download to optimise efficient use of bandwidth 5. Audience metrics and monetisation: opening up the potential to accurately track audiences, creating opportunities for targeted advertising assigned to relevant metadata tags and geo-location.

Awaiting Public Summary