[Interview] Jodi Chall, COO and Co-Founder of SongLily

by Kira Grunenberg

“Licensing Made Easy.”

Though it seems too stark to believe, this statement sums up the appeal of music licensing marketplace SongLily.  Started last year by Les Borsai (CEO) and Jodi Chall, (COO), SongLily is aiming to fill a pair of often misfitting shoes. Music licensing is generally complicated, and when there are already other “no-frills” music request sites competing for the attention of programmers and producers, (such as Syncofy) one has to wonder, “How can SongLily possibly make easy any easier?

That question is answered quickly enough. On the home page for SongLily’s website, visitors and prospective licensees are greeted with a bright and colorful screen devoted to song titles, artist names, bottom line prices, a built-in music player, and a shopping cart. There’s no denying SongLily’s music marketplace wants to streamline customers to  “purchase and sync in media,” without inducing hassle and headaches in the process. Beyond permission acquisition efficiency, SongLily is also pouring energy into supporting a specific crowd that lies so close, and yet so far, from the inner workings of music industry: app developers.

As explained by COO and co-founder, Jodi Chall,

“Out of the 5 million apps created, at least 10% include music. …Most of those companies that use this music have the funds to license, but do not know where to start. The music licensing process can be confusing to companies that are not in the music business, and we wanted to simplify the process. [SongLily] work[s] with the major labels to provide access to their content, and in doing so, we have kept it simple.”

That is not to say the tried-and-true conventional music placement roles are not on SongLily’s radar. Their song database is divided into songs that are suitable as popular tracks or as tracks for production music, the latter of which contains much instrumental music. Additionally, SongLily is all about collaboration in its effort to bring maximum fluidity to music licensing. If SongLily’s specific company objective does not fit a licensee’s needs, SongLily will help put people on the right path to the kind of license they do want for their intended music uses.

Some of the core information to know when working with and shopping around SongLily includes:

• Licenses obtained through SongLily are synch licenses from the master holder and publisher.

• SongLily licenses are valid for one year from the time of flat fee payment.

• Game and app developers whose game or app sells more than 100,000 times will need to pay another flat fee.

• SongLily is intended for small to mid-sized businesses, with ≤200,000 unique site visitors per month.

• The flat fee paid by licensees is actually covering the license fee for the record label, the license fee for the publisher and SongLily’s distribution’s fee. (typically 20%)

To fully understand SongLily’s master plan for music licensing and offerings, I spoke with Jodi Chall and talked about why her company is the marketplace to watch:

SoundCTRL: I never get tired of seeing the energy of a new startup that wants to better the music business with their own special vision. But usually, it takes a bit of time for someone new on the block to get involved with big league players and yet,  here is SongLily already with a database of over 3,000 tracks. Many of them are well-known songs licensed to major labels and big name publishers — that’s certainly a good point of draw. How did you all make this happen?

Jodi Chall: I and my business partner, Les Borsai, he’s my co-founder, both have worked in music for a very long time. Les, even longer than me. He spent the last three or four years consulting for mobile app companies, helping them get music. He came to me and he said, “There’s got to be an easier way to do this.” You know, [acquiring music licenses] in a way that developers don’t have to wait six months to a year to even find out the terms of which they might be able license music for their games and their apps. Because we understand the music business deeply, we were able to identify early on what would not work, and we knew we had to come up with a way for labels and publishers to work together. We uncomplicated the process, allowing things to go from offline, online. We got everything done in advance so nobody has to wait for that process to play out.

As far as the music catalog is concerned, it wasn’t easy to do and it wouldn’t be easy for anybody to replicate. It is truly driven by Les’s relationships in music. He’s come up through the business, represented Jason Mraz, and a lot of other bands. He deeply understands, has socialized with, and has been engaged with the music industry.  And because I always was on the artist’s side, it gives the labels and publishers a lot more comfort and confidence working with us. We spent a lot of time talking with labels, asking, “Well, what kind of entries do you have?” and we figured out solutions to issues to take away their concerns about trying this very innovative, never-before-done thing.

In order to be compelling, we need to have recognizable music. It’s really well-known music, and it’s 80% of record labels’ catalogs. That 80% is not getting a ton of exposure because everyone is calling and wanting to license artists like Rihanna and Lady Gaga. It provides terrific opportunities for game and app developers to set a tone and a mood…We just knew that was required and that those catalogs weren’t being well marketed. Up until now, developers haven’t had the opportunity to act like a music supervisor would, for their games and apps.

 

SC: That said, is the opposing focus on small to mid-size app/game developer companies SongLily’s way of supporting “the little guy?” Many other services that aim to cut down on the red tape usually do this via devotion to independent material but it seems SongLily wants to help get eyeballs to app with the power of familiarty, so was this designation the best compromise?

JC: The small to mid-sized developer game/app community is definitely one of the most underserved of the markets. Electronic Arts knows how to go to the labels and license music and they have a whole team of lawyers that help them do that. The absence of any service providers to mid-level and smaller game and app developers on the music side was really important to this choice. But it was also just a requirement by the labels. They don’t know until after the fact, who the person is that’s licensing and what the app is. They rely on people to comply with the license terms like anybody else does in any other contract but they don’t get to approve it in advance. They’ve never done that before, and so, as a result, we are taking some baby steps, one of which was to consider that we’re already doing business with companies like EA. We don’t want to cannibalize that business because we already talk to them. We want to talk to the other 95% of the marketplace. Most mobile app developers are not the size of EA. Most can license through SongLily.

SC: Continuing somewhat in this vein of inquiry, while the small/medium focus is for developer companies, what is SongLily’s current position on musicians who may have highly visible music akin to other tracks in SongLily’s catalog but who are technically running independently and thus don’t have connections with a major label or publisher? Can they become part of SongLily’s database and reap the same benefits?

JC: Could we work with them? Absolutely. It is in our roadmap to create a do-it-yourself section of the site that can provide their music, information, and a contract because — just to emphasize — we really are a true marketplace. We don’t license anything other than a 30 second clip to play on the SongLily site. So every piece of music also has to come with a license agreement from the content owner, and we can help with that. But, at the end of the day, it’s their contracts. It was most important for us for this purpose to work with major labels. People like it. People really like music that they know. For an independent band though, yes, we can do it. I’m all about content. We just have a three person company though, so our efforts in obtaining music right now are directed at finishing up our major label deals rather than going out to everyone, because we have to have a focus. 

SC: Might you shed some more in-depth light on launch of SongLily’s new Affiliate Program and perhaps provide a few examples of third party music sites and services that have taken to applying?

JCl: So, the deal isn’t finished yet but we are finishing up the paperwork for Harry Fox Agency to be an affiliate of SongLily and to refer people who are looking to sync license. The Affiliate Program is actually pretty simple. It’s for companies that talk to or cater to game app developers in some fashion, to refer them to us to license the content and we give them a percentage of the SongLily fee — not of the total fee but, of the SongLily fee — in the event that there’s a sale.

SC: How do the policies of SongLily’s Affiliate Program fit in the picture where different international laws of content access is concerned? (e.g. music legally streamable in one country may be blocked in another, even if the file itself is 100% not bootlegged or pirated.)

JC: The affiliate program is not entirely automated. We have to approve affiliates that apply and that’s really because we don’t want to impact our terrific relationships with the labels and the publishers. So it is on a case-by-case basis and we have to look at applications. Our focus right now is the U.S. As long as the site is a U.S. company and the site it based in the U.S., that’s what matters. It’s not going to be this way permanently. There are going to be a lot of legal issues we have to navigate and solve. We intend to, just not yet.

SC: Aside from growing SongLily’s library and continuing work to spread the word, does the company have any aspirations for lateral (or other) service expansion — maybe considering support for independent/original short films or (animated) clip series that could get a boost from inclusion of a well-known song?

JC: Yes! We have a very busy roadmap! At the end of the day, what we’ve built is very cool for major label music. But the way we’ve constructed the site, any intellectual property that is owned by a computer company and is to be licensed under certain terms, for certain uses, and for a certain period of time, our site accommodates that.  We also are thinking about expanding in the future into other IP.  Art, for instance, would be the same way. And like I said, the major marketplace keeps the control in the hands of the IP owner, and allows them to offer it to our site.

SC: Ending on a fun note, why SongLily? Any story behind the name?

JC: Oh, I take total credit for that! We must have spent three weeks, trying to come up with names, and it’s so hard to do because everything’s taken and with my legal background, I have a background in IP and I know trademark. So there would be added frustrations from my co-founder, from every time we came up with a name and I would say,”Nope, it’s too close! No, we’ll end up with a trademark issue down the road…” My daughter’s middle name is Lily and we needed something that sounded like music. And I really like her middle name. That’s where it comes from.

If you think you might be interested in licensing a song from SongLily for your app or game or joining their Affiliate Program, you can start browsing and apply right now on SongLily’s official website.

You can also follow SongLily on Twitter @SongLilyLLC.

Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1.

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