Award-winning Washington, DC radio station WTOP interviewed SoundExchange outreach team member Bill Holland this week, touting his effort and success at tracking down artists owed SX royalties. Kudos to veteren investigative reporter Mark Segraves for his dilligent research and help in spreading the word about unclaimed money.
Sneak peak below, or read the full article at WTOP.com.
“Bill Holland may be looking for you — and if he is — you want him to find you. That’s because he has tens of millions of dollars to give away.
Holland is an outreach consultant for SoundExchange, a nonprofit group that pays royalties to recording artists and record labels for music that is played digitally.
Holland specializes in tracking down some of the most hard to find artists: The legacy artists who didn’t play top 40 music or even come close to having a hit record. Because of digital outlets, such as satellite radio and music streaming websites, those artists are now having their music played more than ever, but not necessarily getting the payments they deserve.
Laura Anderson, a spokesperson for SoundExchange, says Holland has one of the toughest jobs because the artists he’s looking for are not digitally savvy and often think it’s a scam when a stranger calls offering them money.
“It’s a delicate kind of detective work,” she says. “First he has to track them down, then convince them that, just this one time, ‘you don’t know me but I want to give you money’ isn’t too good to be true.”
But it is true. In the 10 years that SoundExchange has been paying royalties, the group has distributed more than $723 million to thousands of artists and record labels.”
Read the full story and hear the interview at WTOP.com
