The Association of Independent Music, a U.K. trade body representing hundreds of indie labels, artists and start-ups, has teamed with digital piracy firm Muso to give its members access to tools for monitoring and taking down unlicensed content from the internet.
The free-for-members service will automatically monitor and remove pirated content, and rights holders will be able to see the takedowns using an online dashboard. According to Muso, there were 74 billion visits to music piracy sites in 2017, a 14.7 percent uptick over the previous year.
"We can all agree that music piracy remains contentious and protection has been a historically difficult area," said AIM CEO Paul Pacifico, in a statement to Music Week. "Muso is at the forefront of digital piracy protection and are experts in the business intelligence insights that can be gleaned from it. This new partnership gives our rights holder members access to a highly sophisticated anti-piracy solution, free at the point of access, and allows them oversight of their online content and piracy activity."
Added Pacifico, "Pirates steal both money and consumer data with no return for artists. This service will allow AIM Members to focus on the very positive relationships between artists and their fans by cutting out the pirates and is a huge win for us all."
The new initiative is officially getting unveiled at today's AIM’s Music Connected Conference in London.
