THE PURSUIT OF HUPPE-NESS:
A CHAT WITH SOUNDEXCHANGE'S BOSS

SoundExchange boss Michael Huppe deals with a jaw-dropping volume of complex data, but his primary mission is simple: Get creators paid. Sometimes that’s a technical or logistical process and sometimes, in cases where the status quo denies fair recompense, a political one. Huppe has a marked ability to cut to the chase while discussing subjects that might otherwise make one’s eyes glaze over. But explaining this stuff to us surely tasked his patience.

Everyone in the music industry knows that SoundExchange collects and distributes digital radio royalties, right? Do you still have to educate music creators about what SX does?
Most artists, labels and producers who've been in the industry a while are familiar with SoundExchange. But in today’s music economy, new creators are coming onto the scene in exponential numbers, so we keep education at the forefront, making sure there’s awareness, especially for emerging and independent artists and managers who may have had less exposure to organizations like SoundExchange. We have a team dedicated specifically to research, outreach and the continuing education of different industry communities so we can get money into the pockets of more creators.

On the flip side, SoundExchange works extensively with over 3,500 digital service providers—including companies such as iHeartRadio, Pandora, SiriusXM, Sonos—as well as more than a quarter-million creators and rights holders to manage roughly $1 billion in annual royalties. Solution-driven innovation is at the core of our business. It's why we’re able to get roughly 90% of royalties out the door within 45 days. We have state-of-the-art specialized delivery systems to make that process easier, and we continue to develop new features and functionality to ensure we are operating with the best technology available.

Speaking of paying creators, how does SoundExchange manage the challenge of accurately identifying rights holders' payees?
Data management is among the biggest challenges facing the business of music. Every month SoundExchange adds thousands of new creators and even more new tracks. On top of that, there are often several entities or individuals entitled to royalties from each of those tracks.

The sheer scale and volume of information exchanged and transactions happening each moment in the music space is enormous. SoundExchange was founded with this challenge in mind. We are digital natives, and our mission is to scale to meet the needs of the business of music in this new and evolving ecosystem.

To meet that challenge, SoundExchange has developed proprietary music-tech solutions to help turn data into accurate revenue for creators. Two examples are the platform we have developed called Music Data Exchange (MDX) and International Standard Recording Codes (ISRC) Search. Each of them represents innovative ways to simplify critical business tasks while simultaneously ensuring creators get paid more quickly and more accurately for their work. And I will say that for many creators in the industry, getting paid more quickly and accurately has never been more important than during the pandemic.

Earlier this year, the American Music Fairness Act was introduced on Capitol Hill with music legends like Dionne Warwick and Sam Moore in attendance alongside legislators from both sides of the aisle. Can you tell us more about what this bill would mean for artists and how SoundExchange is involved?
The premise behind this movement is simple: Music creators deserve to be respected, and that means paying them fairly for their work—period. And right now, they are neither respected nor paid by corporate broadcasters when their music is played on AM/FM radio. That is an injustice.

We are proud to be part of a coalition called musicFIRST that is leading the charge to right this inequity in Congress with the introduction of the American Music Fairness Act. We’re looking forward to amplifying this message and helping educate the public during Music Fairness Awareness Month, which is November. We will never stop fighting for music creators to be respected.

While there are many inequities in today’s music space, the oldest and most egregious one—and the one that should embarrass a culture supposedly so focused on creator rights and intellectual property—is the failure of the $10b+ radio industry to pay a flat dime to artists. It’s high time we fixed this problem.

Let’s talk about the industry as a whole. What is your opinion on the health of the industry, including digital radio?
We’re in the middle of a transformation for the music industry. By 2025 the U.S. music industry—driven by the growth of digital—is projected to reach and exceed the historic heights of the CD era. New technologies are also shattering barriers to entry for creators to record, produce and play their music. Live events now include digital halftime shows, holographic concerts, music in gaming or even more interesting opportunities in the metaverse.

We are living in an incredibly vibrant time for music. More than ever before, music is everywhere—in our homes, automobiles, at venues, in gaming, AI and VR. Just look at how catalogs are selling at record multiples and music is being treated as a mainstream (and highly sought-after) asset within an investment portfolio. That's a strong indicator that the future is bright in terms of the value of music.

And it’s only going to continue. For example, we know that 1.8 billion hours of video games are played every month in the U.S.; think of the scale of opportunity for music in that space alone.

What is a typical day like for you?
I can tell you there’s no such thing as a slow day. It’s an intense time in our industry, and I usually start and finish my days thinking about music issues—weekends included. I try to focus as much as possible on the bigger-picture company strategy and industry trends. But it’s important to step away from the race now and then. My moments of greatest clarity often come to me when I step away from the Zoom screen. I also find the work we do and the mission of SoundExchange incredibly energizing and rewarding. Knowing that we’re making a difference in creators’ lives drives me to work the long hours that I do.

What are you listening to right now?
I started delving deeper into podcasts during the pandemic. Two of my favorites are HBR’s “Ideacast” and NPR’s “How I Built This." I love hearing entrepreneurial success stories and insights from the front lines of business and leadership. My go-to stuff from the older days is Earth, Wind & Fire, Elvis Costello or Billy Joel—three of my all-time favorites.

PHOTOS: Huppe with Billie Eilish at SXSW in 2018; in D.C. with Dionne Warwick, 2021