VNUE, Inc. Closes Deal To Acquire Soundstr

Deal Accelerates Company's Push Into Creating Fair, Transparent Public Performance Licensing For Both Venues And Bands

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Apr 25, 2018, 09:00 ET

NEW YORK, April 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- VNUE, Inc. (OTCQB: VNUE), the global leader in recording live events and releasing experiential content to fans, has officially closed its deal to acquire Soundstr, a technology that aims to help businesses pay fairer music license fees based on actual music usage.

The merger of VNUE's patent-pending MiC™ (Music Identification Center) system and Soundstr's own patent-pending music identification technology and hardware aims to fix the current performing rights system. Currently, venues and other businesses are somewhat discouraged from playing music due to high blanket license fees charged by the Performing Rights Organizations (PROs), in which the PROs have no idea what's actually being played – meaning that in many cases, the correct rights holders are not properly compensated.

Instead of paying these high blanket royalty rates, music licensees utilizing the Soundstr/MiC technology would only pay for music played in their establishments, and the appropriate rights holders would then be properly and transparently compensated. VNUE will also leverage the licensing infrastructure around its "instant live" recording technology to streamline the process for these types of rights clearances.

"While the introduction of the Music Modernization Act is very encouraging in some areas of licensing reform, it does not begin to address the problems of General Licensing, and since it's another blanket licensing system, it could merely continue to perpetuate the inequities we see in performance licensing into mechanicals. With Soundstr, we have an incredible opportunity to fix this system that's been broken for more than 50 years, and there's a potential for $3 billion or more in royalties for general licensing that could be more fairly allocated to artists and songwriters," said VNUE CEO Zach Bair. "Since we announced our intent to acquire Soundstr in February, it was exciting to see Spotify (SPOT) follow our lead into music rights with their acquisition of Loudr. It is very clear that this is an important move for the future."

Soundstr was founded by Eron Bucciarelli-Tieger (previously of platinum-selling rock band Hawthorne Heights).

"Our goal with Soundstr is to make real-world music use as transparent as possible so songwriters can receive what they are properly due, while helping licensees pay the fees that are aligned with their music use," said Bucciarelli-Tieger. "VNUE is the perfect partner to help Soundstr move forward with those goals, and we are excited to be pushing forward."

For more information on VNUE, please visit http://www.vnue.com/.

About VNUE, Inc. (www.vnue.com)
VNUE, Inc., (OTC: VNUE) is dedicated to further monetizing the live music experience for artists, labels, writers, and publishers, with products such as its set.fm platform, exclusive license partner and "instant live" pioneer DiscLive, and Soundstr, which helps businesses pay fairer music license fees based on actual music usage. The veteran entrepreneurs, artists and songwriters behind VNUE are passionate about the future of their industry and ensuring that rights holders' value is not lost amid always-changing technology. VNUE's team has produced live content and created experiential products for over 15 years for artists and companies including Father John Misty, The Pixies, Blondie, EMI, Capitol Records, and more.

SOURCE VNUE, Inc.