Established by Chris Meehan and Phil Cooper, Sentric Music uses an innovative online platform to help artists without publishing deals to collect royalties and get their music played in adverts, television programmes and video games. And now it’s linking up with performing rights societies in different European countries, including France and Germany, to offer the same services to musicians there.
The venture was launched in 2005 during the final year of a management degree programme at The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA), and currently works with 5,000 UK artists and a catalogue of some 30,000 tracks of music. ‘We’re looking at scaling our international growth,’ says Meehan. ‘We’re pretty good in the UK at being able to develop the business – we’re growing phenomenally at the minute. We’re looking to get 15,000 artists in the UK by the end of this year and we’re looking to get about the same, internationally, by the end of next year.’
Using a bespoke web-based registration system and 28-day rolling contracts, the company enables (usually unpublished) artists access rights management services. The business also helps acts win ‘sync’ deals for their music to be played in different media, opportunities that, traditionally, only artists signed to major/independent labels or publishers have benefitted from.
As part of its synching service, Sentric Music has exclusive deals with leading British broadcasters. It also regularly supplies music to soap opera Hollyoaks and other television programmes, and works with companies such as O2, Lexus, Fox, and Disney.
Now opertiang from offices in Liverpool and London, the project was conceived between work placements and new business ideas. The company today employs 12 people, among them other LIPA graduates, and maintains close links with the institute. ‘Phil and I were looking at publishing,’ says Meeehan. ‘I just did a bit of research and saw that it was completely inaccessible to the average artist. Most of the market was underserviced.
‘We weren’t necessarily looking for people who could create hits and become international stars. We were trying to provide infrastructure for the masses rather than looking to work with a select number of signings. As is the nature of the business though, we’ve managed to represent some great artists.’
Sentric Music was named one of 2010’s five top ‘virtual businesses’ worldwide in the inaugural Virtual Business Awards, established to commend ventures that use technology as a core customer interaction tool.
Sentric Music currently collects, both in the UK and overseas, and distributes royalties for UK artists. Plus, through strategic partnerships, it secures synching deals across the world.
More: www.sentricmusic.com
