Today we got the pleasure to interview Matt Adell – the former CEO of Beatport who just launched a new venture called Metapop – a tool that will undoubtedly help everyone from up and coming producers to major label owners figure out what to do with all of the unofficial bootlegs and remixes out there. Essentially what Metapop does is combine fan remixers with the rightful owners of the original work, therefore allowing both remixer and original artist/label/publishing company to monetize the work. This is a very basic description of the power of Metapop, which is exactly why we sat down with Matt to get the scoop on what this revolutionary program can do.
What made you start Metapop? Was there any specific moment that you knew this was an issue you wanted to tackle?
After leaving Beatport, I knew I wanted to try to solve a big intractable problem. There are a lot of them in the music business. I also knew that I wanted to enable creativity somehow and the I had no interest in being a cop. We built a system for locating remixes, mashups and Dj Sets on platforms like youtube and soundcloud. After we analyzed the data we saw that there are more and more remixes being made very day but that there was no ecosystem in place to make this behavior a win win situation for the remixer and the original creators across all the places the remixes are appearing. We are solving for that problem.
Who is standing to gain the most from remix monetization? The artist? The label? The fan? What is the driving factor that is getting these groups to sign up?
Our system is designed to have everyone in the ecosystem win. Remixers get to make music without fear of takedowns and legal retribution, original artists and labels get paid in new ways and fans can enjoy the remixes where they are already listening to music. Metapop is not a place for fans to come listen to music, so we have not ben targeting then as members. Thousands of Labels and Publishers have signed up because they need to revenue and, in many cases, support this kind of creativity. Remixers are signed up because they love remixing and want people to hear their work.
How long did it take your team to develop the software necessary to do this? Is this something you guys did from scratch entirely, or was there a blueprint out there?
My Co-Founder is Michael Mukhin, former head of tech at Boomrat. He has built the entire system from scratch over the last 12 months.
What is separating you guys from the competitors? In the EDM world, we hear a lot of stuff about Dubset, and their work in the field – what are you guys doing differently?
While a competitor or two may have gotten some really big press, we are actually getting the job done. We have pre-cleared over 100,000 original songs for remixing. Our competitors show less than 1% of that number as pre-cleared for remixing. We are generating new revenue on a several UGC platforms and we have turned many former bootlegs into official releases on Spotify, Apple, Beatport and more. I am not aware of anyone else in the space actually having achieved any near what we have gotten done this year.
In a perfect world, what would Metapop be accomplishing by the end of next year?
Get the major labels and publishers on-board so that remixers can do almost anything they want and everyone makes the money they deserve.
Is remix monetization the end goal? What does Metapop look like, when fully realized?
The end goal is to have a transparent automated ecosystem for Transformative Media.
What’s your favorite remix on the platform currently?
Who would be your dream artist to be a part of the platform?
Original Artist – The Beatles.
Remixer – Ashley Beedle
How did you get started in the music industry?
I started working in record stores in 1982 and have basically done the same thing ever since.
