Traded as Merlin Network B.V Area served Worldwide Website www.merlinnetwork.org Type Nonprofit organization | Industry Digital Licensing Key people Charles Caldas
(CEO) Founded 2008 | |
Headquarters The Netherlands/United Kingdom | ||
Merlin Network is the global digital rights agency for the world's independent label sector, with a membership accounting for more than 12% of the global recorded music market. It was established to allow digital services the opportunity to globally license – via a single deal, instead of hundreds of individual local deals – commercially successful independent music labels from across the world.
Launched in 2007, after the appointment of current chief executive Charles Caldas, the organisation now has over 700 members from 42 countries. It also represents more than 20,000 independent labels and aggregators worldwide, including Beggars Group, Domino, Epitaph, !K7, Kobalt Label Services, Merge, Ninja Tune, PIAS, Secretly Group, Sub Pop, and Warp.
On their behalf, Merlin has licensed digital services including SoundCloud, YouTube Red, Spotify, Pandora, Google Play, Deezer, Vevo, KKBOX and Guvera, and reached copyright infringement settlements with, among others, Limewire, XM Satellite Radio and Grooveshark.
The organisation operates on a non-exclusive basis, and its stated remit is to “enhance the value of our members rights in deals that cannot be easily negotiated locally or individually, or are not covered adequately by existing arrangements.”
Merlin is owned and controlled by a not-for-profit foundation, supervised by a member-elected board of 15 individuals - five each from North America, Europe and Rest of the World. The current chairman is Beggars Group founder Martin Mills.
Merlin has been recognised by the music and technology sectors. The organisation was named ‘Independent Champion’ at both the 2015 and 2016 A2IM Libera Awards, while CEO Charles Caldas received the IMPALA annual outstanding contribution award in 2013.