Rhapsody Signs With Harry Fox To Support International Expansion
Music treaming service Rhapsody has tapped The Harry Fox Agency (HFA) to handle rights management support for its international expansion to Germany and the UK, as well as, in the U.S. Via their Slingshot service, HFA will provide end-to-end licensing support, including license issuance and administration, data management, royalty calculations and publisher payments for its U.S.-based offering. As well, HFA will administrate Rhapsody's direct licensing agreements with international collection societies, including PRS, GEMA, IMPEL and CELAS.
According to HFA, Digital Data Exchange (DDEX) data standards will help to facilitate foreign society payments to publishers and songwriters. HFA was a founding member of DDEX and helped to establish the the consortium as an international standard.
Formerly Real Networks, Rhapsody's subscription-based streaming music service has more than 1 million paying sunscribers. While initially available only in the U.S., the company announced in January 2012 that through the acqusition of Napster, they were planning to expand into some international markets, including the U.K., and Germany – via CelebrityAccess
