Sweden-based song data startup Session has been acquired by Salt, a royalty processing firm described as the “music society back-office SaaS platform for processing and distributing rightsholder royalties”.
Session was co-founded by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus and Swedish songwriters and record producers Max Martin and Niclas Molinder in 2019 with the goal of combatting inadequate song data collection.
The company’s Session Studio collaboration app can be accessed on mobile and desktop devices. Session Studio is embedded within Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) to capture song information and data at the point of creation.
Björn Ulvaeus will now join Robert Ashcroft, former Chief Executive of PRS for Music, and Roger Faxon, previously Chief Executive of EMI, on Salt’s board.
Salt has also signed a 10-year deal with Dutch music society BumaStemra.
The company says that “these two major deals represent a significant milestone” in its “ongoing efforts to modernise the music industry”.
The acquisition of Session comes five months after the startup launched a partnership with SoundCloud to allow the latter to digitally receive both song audio and song metadata directly from the Session Studio app.
In December Session teamed up with Brazilian collection society UBC (Brazilian Union of Composers).
“I am delighted to join the board of Salt and to work with this prestigious team to bring the transparency and accuracy to the industry that we have all waited so long to achieve,” said Ulvaeus.
“I am delighted to join the board of Salt and to work with this prestigious team to bring the transparency and accuracy to the industry that we have all waited so long to achieve.”
Björn Ulvaeus
Bernard Kobes, BumaStemra’s CEO said: “BumaStemra’s ambition is to be at the forefront of modern music royalty collections and to provide our members with the best possible service. The long-term partnership with Salt enables us to achieve that goal and positions our members at the forefront of industry innovation and monetisation.
“Salt’s advanced capabilities, designed in collaboration with BumaStemra’s experts, allows us to automate and streamline our processes, maximise monetisation, and provide much greater transparency. Our members continuously seek faster, more accurate, more regular and transparent income. Salt enables us to provide exactly that”
“We are thrilled to announce these major deals with BumaStemra and Session.”
Doug Imrie, Salt
Doug Imrie, Chief Executive of Salt added: “We are thrilled to announce these major deals with BumaStemra and Session.
“These partnerships will enable Salt to press ahead with innovation and provide our users, and their members, with the most comprehensive and efficient music rights management solution in the market.
“We look forward to continuing to lead the way in the music industry’s long-awaited and inevitable transformation.”Music Business Worldwide
