Today NPREX, LLC announces the launch of the National Performing Rights Exchange (NPREX®). Inspired by exchanges in the finance industry, NPREX is the first organized exchange for music licenses. NPREX uses economic theory, numerical methods and computer science to automate the execution and settlement of direct music licensing transactions at market prices. Through NPREX, a music publisher or record label sells a music license directly to a music user (TV and Radio Broadcasters, Digital Services, Bars, Club, Venues, etc.) at a mutually-agreed upon market price.
NPREX recently began serving multiple music publishers and 31 US-based commercial radio stations that span four states and several formats, including classic rock, country, modern rock, R&B and news-talk. This is a watershed event for the music industry. For more than a century, the music licensing industry has relied on a centralized collective licensing paradigm that requires federal regulation to offset the monopoly power wielded by licensing collectives. As the long sought-after marketplace that enables direct licensing transactions, NPREX brings unprecedented levels of intelligence, precision, transparency, speed and efficiency to music licensing.
Lee Greer, Founder and President of NPREX, said of the launch, “NPREX unlocks efficiencies for the benefit of both music owners and music users by doing what any good marketplace does: it matches buyers and sellers regardless of size, type, or location so they can easily and efficiently transact at market prices. This is unprecedented in the music industry. The team and I look forward to growing NPREX both in the United States and around the world.”
About Music Licensing
Any time a radio station, TV broadcaster, digital streaming service or brick-and-mortar establishment performs music in public it must secure a music performance license. For over a century, the music performance licensing industry has been without a marketplace where music owners sell performance licenses directly to music users. Instead, for 100 years, the industry has relied on Performance Rights Organizations (PROs) to sell collective licenses on behalf of music publishers and writers. A collective license covers a collection of songs owned not by the PRO but by many music publishers, and without an exemption from federal antitrust law, collective licensing gives rise to antitrust issues and government regulations.
About NPREX, LLC and NPREX
Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee and founded by a team of economists, technologists, lawyers, and music industry professionals from major music licensing organizations, NPREX, LLC operates the National Performing Rights Exchange, or NPREX. NPREX is a business-to-business platform that automates direct licensing transactions for all types of music licenses with a special emphasis on performance licensing across all usage types, including traditional broadcast, digital streaming, and brick-and-mortar establishments. The transaction costs of NPREX are pennies on the dollar, a tiny fraction of the double-digit transaction fees typically taken by music licensing intermediaries. Proprietary matching and pricing algorithms within NPREX quickly execute and settle direct licenses. The pricing algorithm of NPREX is a mathematical framework derived from economic theory that works for all license types and provides a single system that enables buyers and sellers of music licenses to transact with one another at well-informed market prices. A free-market for licensing transactions, NPREX creates efficiencies and transparency for the entire music licensing industry.
