IN DEPTH
Opinion Te future of licensing
will increase demand further. (Recipes in your fridge, anyone?) Direct-to-consumer licensing will also expand as more and more individuals become creators. We will embed content with metadata that enables us to identify where and how it is being used, and use digital marketing techniques to pinpoint those with an interest in specific elements of our content, enabling us to target licensing efforts extremely effectively.
Clare Hodder & Ruth Tellis
Digital transformation may have altered the landscape for consumers, but its potential to revolutionise workflows is yet to be fully realised
A licensing revolution T
the impact it will have and the opportunities it could bring. It’s hard to distil how these might impact the licensing business, but there are five key areas in which there could be significant change for those in rights 10, 20 or 30 years from now.
Content. We won’t be bound by traditional formats, with publishers creating new ways of packaging content in the shapes, sizes and formats consumers demand. The rights we are licensing will change, too. The economics of publishing a translation will improve significantly, with AI replacing human translators possibly as soon as 2024, but any initial boon may be short-lived, with no need for licensing if publishers can produce their own multi-language editions. Slicing, dicing and mashing content will drive growth in granular licensing, transforming permissions from a side-show to core licensing business. We will see an increase in bulk licensing too; robots need data, and if they are to learn how to write novels, or educate the next generation, publishers can provide the source material. (See Google’s Talk to Books for experiments in this area.)
Customers. Traditionally we have licensed to other publishers, but as our content becomes more discoverable, there will be demand from other industries. For instance, car manufacturers and airlines are already embedding audio content in entertainment systems. The “internet of things” and home assistants
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Contracts. The entire mechanism for licensing will be transformed with smart contracts, powered by Blockchain technology. The rights granted and financial exchange will be wrapped up in a digital agreement that guarantees compliance. All of this can happen in an instant, cuting out admin and resulting in substantial savings. Fees can then be set at a level that more accurately reflects the value of the re-use, and licensing will therefore become a viable alternative to digital piracy.
he fourth Industrial Revolution—the age of innovation driven by robotics and artificial intelligence—will bring change into every part of our lives. There are many different views about when change will come, and how much there will be, but there is no escaping the fact that what felt like science fiction 10 years ago is much closer to being science fact. One thing is for sure, our industry will not be immune from the transition, and we need to start thinking about
Te entire mechanism for licensing will be transformed with smart contracts, powered by Blockchain technology
Copyright. Around the world, copyright is coming under increasing pressure as the market grapples with how a historic legal concept can possibly still be applicable in our digital world. There is extensive lobbying (much of it funded by big tech) for amendments that would allow content re-use without the need for authorisation from, or compensation for, its creator/s. However, the future of licensing entirely depends on a robust copyright framework that balances the rights of creators with the rights of users.
Competitors. Our competitors in the licensing space won’t just be other publishers. Everyone has the tools to be a creator now, and individuals will commercialise their offerings in the same way as publishers. Amazon has already entered the market as a publisher; social media businesses have a huge amount of content; and Google is amassing the world’s information at an incredible pace.
The rights and licensing landscape of today contrasts sharply with this vision of the future, and to embrace it we need to make significant changes—now. Firstly, we don’t have easily searchable data to tell us what rights we hold in our content. We need this data (and metadata standards underpinning it) at a granular level for all of our content. The tools many use for managing rights and licensing are woefully inadequate. We need modern, robust systems which can help us to evolve our licensing practices. We need to demonstrate that copyright is working by making it quick, easy and affordable for people to acquire rights. Finally, we need to recruit and train rights professionals who are prepared to stay curious; to experiment, and to learn from failures.
Clare Hodder and Ruth Tellis are the co-founders of RightsZone; both are directors of the company
One can’t be sure what the return on investment in futureproofing your licensing set-up is. But as soon as in the next five years, our analogue legacy will severely restrict our abilit to license content, and even to publish it at all. If we don’t invest in our people, data and systems, there are plent of tech giants with deep pockets who will snatch this exciting new market from us, before we’ve even noticed it’s there.
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