RightsFlow is an American company that provides organizations, bands, songwriters and individuals with music licensing services and royalty payment solutions. It was founded in 2007. RightsFlow is based in New York City. It was co-founded by Patrick Sullivan and Benjamin Cockerham, who are still with the company. Sullivan is currently the

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

& CEO, and Cockerham is currently the CFO and chief strategy officer. Additional members of the executive team include Matt Irvin, senior vice president of product and co-founder, Scott Sellwood, senior vice-president and

general counsel A general counsel, also known as chief counsel or chief legal officer (CLO), is the chief in-house lawyer for a company or a governmental department. In a company, the person holding the position typically reports directly to the CEO, and their ...

, Fred Beteille, senior vice-president, operations and technology, Michael Kauffman, senior vice-president of

corporate communications Corporate communication is a set of activities involved in managing and orchestrating all internal and external communications aimed at creating favourable point of view among stakeholders on which the company depends. Riel, Cees B.M. van; Fombru ...

and content, Chris Lydle, vice-president of sales and marketing, and Alex Holz, vice-president of artist and client relations. The company was acquired by Google on December 9, 2011, with the deal announced on the YouTube blog.

Brief history

Launched in 2007, RightsFlow now has over 16,000 clients, including YouTube,

Muzak Muzak is an American brand of background music played in retail stores and other public establishments. The name has been in use since 1934, and has been owned by a division or subsidiary of one or another company ever since. In 1981, Westingho ...

Wolfgang's Vault Wolfgang's (formerly Wolfgang's Vault) is a private music-focused company established in 2002 dedicated to the restoration and archiving of audio and video concert recordings and the sale of music memorabilia. It began with the collection of the p ...

, and Rhapsody, as well as

CDBaby CD Baby, Inc. is an online distributor of independent music. The company was described as an "anti-label" by its parent company's Chief Operating Officer Tracy Maddux. The CD Baby music store was shut down in March 2020 with a statement that " ...

, Disc Makers, We Print Discs and

Zynga Zynga Inc. () is an American developer running social video game services. It was founded in April 2007, with headquarters in San Mateo, California. The company primarily focuses on mobile and social networking platforms. Zynga states its missio ...

. RightsFlow was selected No. 8 on

Crain's New York Crain Communications Inc is an American multi-industry publishing conglomerate based in Detroit, Michigan, United States, with 13 non-US subsidiaries. History Gustavus Dedman (G.D.) Crain, Jr. ( Gustavus Demetrious Crain, Jr.; 1885–1973), pre ...

"Best Places To Work in NYC" for 2011. The company was acquired by Google in December 2011 and is now a subsidiary of YouTube.

Services

Rightsflow provides online music services, record companies, distributors and artists the ability to license music and lyrics while also managing payments for the rights holders. Through their LimeLight service, RightsFlow helps secure the

mechanical license In copyright law, a mechanical license is a license from the holder of a copyright of a composition or musical work, to another party to create a "cover song", reproduce, or sample a portion of the original composition. It applies to copyrighted ...

for individuals, artists and bands. Through their MySpark service, the company simplifies

copyright registration The purpose of copyright registration is to place on record a verifiable account of the date and content of the work in question, so that in the event of a legal claim, or case of infringement or plagiarism, the copyright owner can produce a cop ...

with the United States Copyright Office. Limelight is an online rights clearance service to secure a

, or the right to record a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of a song. Limelight charges a small fee to attempt to secure the license. MySpark is an online utility that simplifies copyright registration for creators and owners of various forms of intellectual property including

literary works Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile art ...

sound recordings Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording t ...

, performing arts, and software.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rightsflow Music organizations based in the United States Companies based in New York City Music publishing Google acquisitions Music licensing organizations