OpenPlay Continues to Lead the Music Industry Toward a More Connected Future
"Control of your data is essential because it directly translates to control over your business."
Designed and built from the ground up by music industry experts, OpenPlay services customers that manage the largest libraries of valuable media assets in the world.
Trusted by major labels and independents alike to manage their catalogs, OpenPlay’s leading asset management platform bridges the gap between content creation, metadata management, assets, rights, and delivery.
It’s always a treat to catch up with Edward Ginis, Co-Founder and Chief Client Officer at OpenPlay. We recently had an opportunity to discuss a variety of great topics — from data delivery, content management and copyright, to their newly released OpenPlay API Version 2 and what’s on the horizon in 2025.
P&S: As the digital industry emerged, content owners depended on the data systems of their service providers, whether a distributor, an administrator or an accountant. These third-party vendor systems evolved independently, and not to any particular standard. Could you explain how copyright owners can take greater control of their content and avoid depending on multiple third-party vendor systems? What are some of the practical steps they can take to achieve this and maximize productivity?
EG: Control of your data is essential because it directly translates to control over your business. When you control your data, you control the exploitation of your content and gain the strategic flexibility to adapt to market opportunities quickly. You can choose specialized vendors for specific services in different territories and switch partners without the usual migration headaches.
The key is to flip the model: continue outsourcing specialized services to expert third parties but maintain ownership of your data infrastructure. You feed vendors the data they need rather than letting them control your information ecosystem.
This approach has become practical for two important reasons. First, the industry now has DDEX (Digital Data Exchange) standards, which provide a common language for systems to communicate. Any quality content management system should generate DDEX files, and any reputable service provider should accept them.
Second, user-friendly, interoperable software like OpenPlay now exists, making it possible for music companies of all sizes to manage their own data and assets without massive technical investment. This represents a true digital dividend – reclaiming control of your business's most valuable asset: your data.
P&S: How has OpenPlay used that same evolution in the industry to create a ‘single source of truth’ for content management, and can you walk us through what that looks like in practice, and how it benefits different departments within an organization?
EG: The fragmentation of music business systems has historically forced companies to manually enter the same data across multiple platforms – marketing, promotion, finance, production, and more. This redundancy not only wastes time but creates countless opportunities for inconsistencies. These data discrepancies are a primary source of the industry's notorious "black boxes" – where millions in royalties sit unallocated because the metadata doesn't match across systems.
When a DSP (or the MLC) can't reconcile a stream with the correct rights holder due to inconsistent data, payments get delayed or, worse, never reach the rightful creators.
The ripple effect is devastating: artists and songwriters wait months or years for earnings, publishers struggle with cash flow forecasting, and labels lose trust in the entire ecosystem. By eliminating these inconsistencies at the source, we're not just improving operational efficiency – we're directly accelerating the flow of revenue throughout the value chain.
OpenPlay's solution leverages modern API architecture to establish what we call a "single source of truth." Data is entered once and automatically shared across all internal departments and external partners. When information changes – which happens constantly in this business – you update it in one central location, and those changes cascade throughout the ecosystem.
In practice, this transforms operations across the organization. Marketing teams access the same verified metadata as the finance department. Production knows exactly what assets are approved and ready for distribution. External partners receive consistent, accurate information without manual file transfers or emails.
Consider a catalog acquisition: without a central system, updating thousands of tracks across multiple platforms becomes a months-long project with high error potential. With OpenPlay, these changes happen once and propagate automatically, saving countless hours while eliminating errors that could impact revenue.
This synchronized approach is perhaps the most important operational upgrade a music company can make today – eliminating redundancy, reducing errors, and ensuring everyone works with the latest and most accurate catalog information.
P&S: Continuing along those lines, the separation of promotional services from technical delivery has been an important topic for you, and OpenPlay has not been shy about labeling delivery a commodity. Can you explain why that separation is important and how it could help copyright owners better manage their resources?
EG: This distinction is crucial: data delivery is a technical service, while promotion is a value-added service.
In today's digital ecosystem, the technical aspects of delivering data and assets to DSPs have become standardized — it's essentially moving information from point A to point B. This is fundamentally different from designing and executing marketing campaigns that genuinely drive discovery and consumption.
Great marketing and promotion services deserve compensation that reflects their impact on performance — these services directly increase visibility and consumption of content. Understanding the distinction between these services helps copyright owners make more informed decisions about their vendor relationships.
By recognizing the different nature of these services, copyright owners can better evaluate their partnerships, ensuring they receive appropriate value across both technical and promotional functions. This clarity allows rights holders to align their business strategies with their growth objectives and allocate resources more effectively.
We believe copyright owners should seek vendor relationships that reflect this operational reality. For data management and delivery services, percentage-based pricing should be low and completely transparent.
An important consideration is that legacy catalog not requiring or receiving artist services should operate at a much lower percentage of revenue than new releases that require measurable investment in marketing, promotion, and other artist services.
This tiered approach recognizes the different needs across your catalog lifecycle. Meanwhile, performance-based compensation for promotional services should reflect their direct impact on discovery and consumption.
This balanced approach properly aligns costs with value delivered and ultimately leads to more sustainable business relationships throughout the ecosystem.
P&S: With your newly released OpenPlay API Version 2, how does the approach of combining it with delivery services empower copyright owners, and what should they look for in vendor APIs to ensure they get everything they need?
EG: APIs represent the future of efficient data exchange in the music industry – eliminating cumbersome file transfers in favor of direct, automated communication between systems.
Our V2 API exemplifies this evolution by enabling seamless, real-time data flow both outbound to partners and inbound from partners.
For copyright owners, this combination creates unprecedented operational agility. Changes propagate instantly, reporting becomes timelier and more accurate, and the entire ecosystem becomes more responsive while eliminating costly data discrepancies.
When evaluating vendor APIs, copyright owners should focus on five critical aspects:
Comprehensive data access: The API should provide access to all your content, metadata, and performance metrics without artificial limitations.
Bidirectional capabilities: Look for systems that both send and receive data, creating a true feedback loop with your partners.
Documentation and support: Clear documentation, reference implementations, and dedicated support ensure you can implement the promised functionality.
Standards compliance: The API should align with industry standards like DDEX to ensure compatibility across the ecosystem.
Developer resources: Public repositories, code samples, and development tools dramatically accelerate integration.
OpenPlay is committed to leading the industry toward this more connected future.
We've made our API documentation and sample implementations publicly available because we believe a more interoperable music ecosystem benefit everyone.
P&S: As you’ve discussed in the past, a key principle at OpenPlay is the ability to switch vendors seamlessly and without friction. What challenges do copyright owners typically face when switching vendors, and how can they ensure the process is simple?
EG: The current vendor landscape was shaped by streaming's explosive growth – companies rapidly built proprietary systems to handle the new digital reality. The unintended consequence? An ecosystem of incompatible platforms that don't communicate effectively with each other.
This creates significant "barriers to exit" – high switching costs in both time and money when moving from one vendor to another. Data migration becomes a nightmare of incompatible formats, inconsistent fields, and manual reconciliation.
Some vendors quietly benefit from this friction, and we've even encountered distributors who explicitly refused to return client content – a practice we find unconscionable.
Copyright owners can protect themselves by taking three specific actions:
Own your data infrastructure: Maintain your catalog in a system you control, independent of your distribution partners.
Demand data portability: Before signing with any vendor, secure explicit contractual terms guaranteeing the return of all your data and assets in standardized formats. If they push back, take that as a red flag.
Standardize your operations: Adopt systems built on industry standards like DDEX that are designed for interoperability from the ground up.
We believe vendors should compete on the quality of their services – marketing expertise, financial insights, creative strategy – not on their ability to hold your data hostage. Technical delivery is a commodity that should never be weaponized as a competitive tactic.
P&S: With OpenPlay continuing to work toward being the industry’s go-to ‘single source of truth’, what’s on the horizon for you in 2025 to achieve this goal and how can interested companies contact you to learn more about OpenPlay’s new and upcoming services?
EG: OpenPlay's mission remains crystal clear: to provide a standardized, user-friendly content management platform that reduces operational friction across the music ecosystem. We serve as a central, neutral provider of data and asset management that facilitates commerce for all industry participants.
Our most significant development for 2025 is the expansion of our publishing capabilities. While OpenPlay has always captured core songwriter and publisher data, we're now building comprehensive solutions for splits management and sync licensing.
When complete, OpenPlay will become the industry's first unified platform supporting the complete management of both recordings and compositions. This integration eliminates the artificial separation between these rights types that has complicated music business operations for decades.
This unified approach reflects our core belief that "good data equals good business." Every feature we develop aims to make running a music company more efficient, more accurate, and more profitable.
We welcome conversations with forward-thinking music companies ready to modernize their operations. Reach us at sales@openplay.co or visit www.openplay.co and click "contact us" to start the conversation.