The Harry Fox Agency has surpassed the 2 million mark in songs licensed with the organizations by nearly 36,000 publishers. Since each song can be in a variety of formats, including CDs, digital downloads, lyrics, tableatures, ringtones, and even different performances of the song, HFA cumulatively now administers over 15.2 million licenses.
While the two million mark is an “incredible milestone..what is really impressive is the data behind those songs: our knowledge of the various ownership splits, authorizations, licensing history, payment information, and other business rules as they apply to each composition,” HFA’s president and CEO Gary Churgin said in a statement. “It’s this knowledge base, combined with HFA’s expertise and proprietary administration tools, which makes us such a valuable partner for both publishers and licensees.”
Song data can have many components, including multiple writers and multiple publishers, and each may have different licensing guidelines and instructions for royalty payment. Also, ownership shares in a song can change hands, requiring accurate documentation and maintenance of the new split structure to ensure the proper representation and royalty payment on past and future licenses. All these issues and data are handled by HFA and the systems it has designed to deliver mechanical licenses almost instantly, the agency said in its announcement.
