VNUE, Inc. To Acquire Music Rights Company Soundstr To Ensure Fairer Royalty System

NEW YORK, Feb. 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- VNUE, Inc. (OTC: VNUE), the global leader in recording live events and releasing experiential content to fans, is leading a group that has signed a letter of intent to acquire Soundstr, a technology company that helps businesses pay fairer music license fees based on actual music usage.

The acquisition leverages Soundstr's progress in developing music identification technology and hardware that will accelerate VNUE's patent-pending MiC™ (Music Identification Center) system to market considerably.

"For years, the performance rights organizations (PROs), have utilized blanket licensing agreements to charge businesses, such as the 62,000+ bars and taverns in the US, large fees for music they are likely never going to play, due mainly because the PROs have no idea what music is actually being played," said VNUE CEO Zach Bair. "Because of this, many rights holders don't see a dime from performances of their work in blanket licensed businesses.  Our technology aims to solve this issue and make it fair for everyone."

The Cincinnati-based Soundstr was founded by Eron Bucciarelli-Tieger, who previously served as co-founder and drummer for the platinum-selling rock band Hawthorne Heights. Like Bair, Bucciarelli-Tieger became passionate about rights management when he determined that he was not being properly compensated for the use of his music.

"The vision for Soundstr is to create transparency on real-world music use, ensure accurate songwriter payments when their works are used and simultaneously help licensees pay fees in accordance with their music use," said Bucciarelli-Tieger. "VNUE is the natural home for Soundstr as the company seeks to carry on with that vision. I look forward to the day when General Performance royalties show up on my Performing Rights statements."

Instead of paying those large fees in the current system — sometimes resulting in small stores going out of business or eliminating music altogether — music licensees under the MiC system would only pay for music they actually used, and the appropriate rights holders would then be properly compensated.

Additionally, VNUE will leverage the technology in its business of "instant live" recording to greatly streamline the process of these types of rights clearances.

"The current performing rights system discourages venues from having music and does not fairly compensate the musicians even if the venues do pay into the PRO system. With the joining of the MiC system and Soundstr technology, we will better align the fees the venues pay with the music that's actually played there, and by making this fee fair and transparent, increase the number of licensed venues, and ultimately increase royalty payments to the actual rights holders for the songs," Bair added.

About VNUE, Inc.  (www.vnue.com)
VNUE, Inc., (OTC: VNUE) is a music technology company dedicated to further monetizing the live music experience for artists, labels, writers, publishers, and literally all stakeholders, by creating new and exciting products such as its set.fm platform and exclusive license partner and "instant live" pioneer DiscLive (disclive.net); by leveraging automation technology and second-to-none experience in the instant live space; and by identifying issues such as lack of transparency with performance rights organizations and solving this through innovation and our patent-pending solutions. 

About Soundstr  (www.soundstr.com)
Soundstr is a Cincinnati-based and venture-backed music technology company, founded by musicians. Soundstr's mission is to create transparency around real-world music usage. Soundstr wants to use technology to build a more sustainable music industry by putting more money into the pockets of songwriters and businesses alike.

Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements and information in this press release are forward-looking statements and may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933 and Rule 3b-6 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to the safe harbor created by those rules. All statements, other than statements of fact, included in this press release, including, without limitation, statements regarding potential future plans and objectives of the company, are forward-looking statements based on our current plans and expectations and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. Accordingly, these forward-looking statements should be evaluated with consideration given to the many risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements including those risks set forth in our periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. New risks emerge from time to time. It is not possible for management to predict all such risk factors or to assess the impact of such risks on our business which could prevent the prompt implementation of any strategically significant plan(s) outlined above. Accordingly, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, after the date of this release.

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SOURCE VNUE, Inc.

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