Noctil Creates a Symphony of Metadata Management
'Metadata must be agile, interoperable, and deeply connected across formats and platforms.'
Noctil kicked things off back in 2016 as part of Kongur Tiube LLC, and since then, they have been on a mission to make data and cloud tech work smarter for the music and movie world.
Jacob Varghese, the Founder & Director of Noctil, started the company to fix the inefficient systems and processes that cause delayed or lost royalty revenue in the music and audiovisual industries.
The secret sauce? Mixing AI, machine learning, and the cloud to help customers get more out of their data—whether that means saving money, streamlining their workflow, or just making life a little easier.
With Noctil, you don’t have to stress about keeping up with the latest tech or managing your music and movie metadata, royalties, rights, or catalog. They’ve built a robust platform to be super user-friendly and hassle-free, so you can focus on what matters—creating and sharing amazing content, while they handle the data details behind the scenes.
It’s right there in Noctil’s mission statement that they believe ‘music has the power to transform lives and change the world!’
That is why Noctil aims to help musicians continue to create more powerful music and ensure that they are paid for their deserved rights, keeping the artistic creativity alive.
We had the pleasure to connect with Varghese to discuss the present and future of music metadata, Artificial Intelligence, and preparing for further disruption in the music industry.
- What are the common challenges you see in Music Metadata Management, and how is Noctil helping music publishing companies and record labels navigate these roadblocks to enhance their overall efficiency?
It’s the sheer volume and complexity of data involved in the music supply chain and, in general, the whole ecosystem. Record labels, distributors, rights administrators and many other organisations are dealing with not just different identifiers but also different song versions, rightsholders, territories, performers, moods and many more.
I can appreciate and sympathise that it’s hard work juggling all this data. And if you’re not using some kind of centralised platform that can help you with identification, matching and delivery, you’re creating lots of room for human error.
This is where Noctil comes in. We set up the platform to provide a centralised hub where all this information can be organised, cleaned up and linked together accurately. This not only saves time for publishing companies and labels who are often dealing with spreadsheets and manual processes, but also eventually ensures that rightsholders are getting paid correctly and efficiently.
We actually designed our platform to be industry-agnostic, recognising that effective metadata management, data transformation, advanced matching and entity resolution are critical to driving better business outcomes across many sectors. High-quality metadata plays a vital role in everything from healthcare and legal to IT and telecom.
In industries like music and audio-visual, it becomes even more crucial as it underpins remuneration, copyright protection, discovery, customer experience, and auditing processes.
You can think of Noctil as bringing order to the chaos, making sure everyone gets their due without the headache.
- How do you see the practice of Music Metadata Management changing in the next five years? Do you have a sense of what’s on the horizon for such a vital component of the entertainment industry supply chain?
While awareness of the importance of clean metadata has improved, the music industry is still experiencing challenges. The biggest hurdle right now is adopting scalable, interoperable, automated and affordable solutions that can manage metadata across increasingly complex global supply chains.
Unfortunately, the industry as a whole still struggles with outdated systems, fragmented data standards and limited integration capabilities - and this is despite a broader understanding of the “metadata problem”.
What we’ll see probably see over the next few years is an increase in metadata volume and complexity with the emergence of new platforms and the growing use of music from underrepresented regions. What will make things even more complex is also the legislative progress with regards to AI because undoubtedly there will be a new component within metadata systems to identify AI-generated music.
Moving forward, we need to focus on expanding knowledge and best practices for metadata management to all levels of stakeholders, driving alignment on universal metadata standards to ensure compatibility and seamless data exchange, and encouraging the use of platforms and tools that leverage AI/ML to automate data validation, deduplication and reconciliation processes.
The music industry needs to futureproof itself and by equipping ourselves with knowledge and scalable solutions, it is possible. It’s time for the music industry to be ahead of the curve and not have to keep catching up with new technologies.
- With Noctil’s platform processing over 100 million sound recordings and assisting more than 50,000 rightsholders in the past five years, what challenges have you faced in scaling your operations, and how have you addressed them to maintain efficiency and accuracy?
What we offer today is the result of continuous collaboration and feedback from our customers. Over the past eight years, we have twice returned to the drawing board to redesign everything from scratch. In 2016, after years of industry experience, we identified the need for a new approach to matching and identification solutions, powered by modern technologies like ML and AI.
Our first iteration emerged in response to an RFP for a matching solution.
In the music industry, each segment focuses on distinct types of rights and data, reflecting their specific needs and objectives. Publishers concentrate on Musical Works and the associated rights, while Labels prioritise Sound Recordings and related Master rights. Music licensing agencies, on the other hand, are tasked with licensing and collecting specific rights on behalf of their members.
These varied focal points translate into vastly different use cases across the industry.
This is where the versatility and strength of our platform come into play. At its core, we developed a robust and adaptable platform. Building on this foundation, we designed modular solutions tailored to address the unique challenges of each segment. The modular nature allows for a seamless plug-and-play approach, enabling us to integrate different modules to tackle some of the industry's most pressing issues.
Every feature built atop our platform stems from customer needs and feedback. We remain committed to continuously improving, optimising, and refreshing our solutions to stay ahead of industry demands.
- Noctil recently launched an Offshore Development Center in Kochi, India, increasing your global presence. What motivated this expansion, and how do you envision it enhancing Noctil’s services and client relations?
The motivation was simple: we needed to expand our team to support our growing international client base and provide support in various time zones. The ODC enables us to enhance our global reach with round-the-clock productivity and a diverse talent pool.
It will help accelerate project timelines while delivering cost-effective solutions for our clients.
- Artificial intelligence is increasingly influencing the music industry. How is Noctil integrating AI into its metadata management solutions, and what impact do you foresee AI having on the future of music rights and royalties?
At Noctil, we're focused on using AI to improve the way an artist’s work is tagged, catalogued, and exchanged with various music organisations. This is essential in today's digital age, where music is streamed and downloaded from all over the world.
By using AI to ensure that music is accurately tagged with the right metadata, we can make it easier for record labels, music rights organisations, distributors, and collecting societies to ensure that artists and rightsholders are properly credited for their work.
This, in effect, helps music rightsholders maximise their revenues and get artists paid for the use of their work.
The integration of AI/ML technologies into our stack has delivered three significant outcomes:
Enhanced Operational Efficiency: By eliminating the need to manage and maintain complex rules, we’vestreamlined processes and reduced manual overhead.
Improved Accuracy: Our solutions have demonstrated a 15% to 20% improvement in accuracy compared to traditional and legacy systems.
Continuous Learning and Optimization: Automation powered by AI/ML enables continuous learning from data and decisions, further refining and optimizing overall processes over time.
- Given the evolving landscape of music consumption, including the resurgence of vinyl and the rise of streaming platforms, how does Noctil adapt its services to meet the changing needs of artists and rightsholders in this dynamic environment?
At Noctil, we see every shift in music consumption as a signal that metadata must be agile, interoperable, and deeply connected across formats and platforms.
Our platform is designed to adapt to these shifts by providing flexible, future-proof metadata infrastructure. Whether it’s tracking usage on streaming services, managing credits for physical releases like vinyl, or preparing for emerging formats like spatial audio or AI-generated content, we focus on ensuring that rights and ownership information are accurate, actionable, and ready to flow wherever the data needs to go as part of the new business model.
For artists and rightsholders, that means better visibility across markets and stronger control over their data. By continuously integrating new data sources, automating enrichment and matching, and ensuring interoperability with global systems, Noctil helps build a more transparent and responsive ecosystem”.
- Looking ahead, what do you believe will be the next significant disruption in the music industry, and how is Noctil positioning itself to stay ahead of these changes to continue supporting artists and rightsholders effectively?
One of the next major disruptions we anticipate in the music industry is the rapid rise of AI-generated content and new forms of user-generated media. These new revenue models will dramatically increase the volume and complexity of music usage data across platforms, territories, and rights layers.
At Noctil, we're preparing for this by focusing on scalable, intelligent metadata systems that can handle a high-velocity, high-diversity ecosystem.
With new AI-based agents that can help automate much of the manual work that operational professionals, artists, and creative folks don't want to do.
Ultimately, Noctil is not just reacting to disruption. We’re building infrastructure that’s designed to anticipate it, helping artists and rightsholders stay protected and empowered, no matter how the industry transforms.