Consolidated Independent and RoyaltyShare Unveil Strategic Alliance

LONDON and SAN DIEGO, Jan. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Consolidated Independent Ltd. (CI), the leading digital media platform for independent labels and distributors, and RoyaltyShare, Inc., the leader in Web-based digital revenue and royalty processing services, today announced a multifaceted initiative aimed at providing independent record labels and distributors a seamless end-to-end solution for digital channel management. Under the terms of the agreement, shared customers will immediately benefit from data-level integration between the companies' platforms.  In addition, the companies will work together to create deeper integration and conduct joint marketing and sales efforts.

As digital distribution has grown to be a primary revenue stream for the recorded music industry, labels and distributors have faced a significant challenge managing the distribution of media to hundreds of music services and dealing with millions of lines of complex sales transactions.  The combination of CI's media platform and RoyaltyShare's Digital Sales Management, analytics and royalty processing services provide content providers with all the tools needed to effectively manage the digital side of the business.

"The digital era is defined by data complexity," said Paul Hitchman, Director of Business Development, CI. "CI has been a pioneer in helping independent labels and distributors create, manage and distribute the key data and assets required to sell music and video online.  RoyaltyShare, in turn, helps content providers deal with the multitude of sales reports from digital services and the complexity of paying royalties on millions of complex transactions.  Together we complete the puzzle of digital channel management."

"The importance of RoyaltyShare and CI working together was made crystal clear by our current, shared customer base," said Bob Kohn, chairman and CEO of RoyaltyShare.  "We have great respect for the robustness and reliability of CI's media platform and we are excited to provide our mutual customers solutions that give them even greater efficiencies and cost savings."

Under the terms of the agreement, RoyaltyShare and CI will initially focus on several core activities:

• RoyaltyShare's and CI's product teams will work together to provide further integration of the company's platforms.  For example, customers that create new titles/albums within the CI platform will now be able to seamlessly populate the RoyaltyShare system with this same critical data.  In addition to saving significant time, this process ensures consistency of data and eliminates potential discrepancies.
• RoyaltyShare and CI will make it easy for customers signing up to either respective service to seamlessly transition existing data, eliminating the need for manual data manipulation and entry while mitigating system inconsistencies.
• The companies will cross market each other's services, highlighting the advantages of using the companies' platforms together.  Marketing activities may include cooperative sales efforts, combined activities at industry events, and joint seminars.

Longer term, the companies will explore additional levels of technical and business integration that will further simplify workflow for their common customers.

RoyaltyShare and CI's current common customers praised the new agreement, highlighting the advantages of integrated platforms.

"Ministry of Sound made an early decision to forge direct deals with retailers and digital music services rather than rely on aggregators," said Hester Lucas, Head of Digital at Ministry of Sound.  "The services offered by RoyaltyShare and CI allow us to manage our digital sales channel effectively and it makes perfect sense that the respective platforms would work in sync. We believe that this partnership further simplifies our solution for managing digital sales."

"RoyaltyShare and CI have both been core elements in the success and growth of Virtual Label's digital operations for the last four years and we are thrilled by the possibilities this new partnership opens up," said Peter Wright, CEO of Virtual Label. 

About Consolidated Independent (CI)

www.ci-info.com

In 2003, CI redefined digital media distribution by pioneering an open, secure, and reliable platform which enables rightsholders of any size or category to enjoy the same scale and reach in the marketplace as the largest players.

Currently on the CI Media Platform are labels, distributors and specialist aggregators such as: PIAS, Beggars Group, Domino Records, RedEye Distribution, AWAL, Wind Up, Ministry of Sound, Made in Etaly, Naive, !K7, Southern Records Distribution, RSK Entertainment, Scorpio Music, Kompakt, Virtual Label, Kiver, ST Holdings and Demon Music Group.

Today CI connects the best independent music with more services than any other platform. CI continues to add new features and new connections to provide all users of the CI Media Platform with a powerful competitive advantage in the digital marketplace.

About RoyaltyShare

RoyaltyShare is the worldwide leader in web-based royalty processing and digital content management solutions for the global entertainment industry. Utilizing an innovative Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) application delivery model, RoyaltyShare provides a suite of on-demand services dedicated to simplifying the increasingly complex digital sales process. RoyaltyShare's service offerings include metadata management, managing sales and distribution information, calculating royalties and generating royalty reports. RoyaltyShare's web-based solution supports the management of content sold through digital, physical, subscription, mobile and other channels. RoyaltyShare is based in San Diego with offices in New York and London. More information on the company can be found at http://www.royaltyshare.com.

SOURCE RoyaltyShare, Inc.