 | |
| Industry | Music |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2015 |
| Founder | Jacqui Louez Schoorl, Louis Schoorl |
| Headquarters | Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
Key people |
|
| Website | jaxsta |
Jaxsta is an Australia-based database of official music credits, including performers, artists, engineers, producers and songwriters. Jaxsta's data is content-owner supplied rather than crowd-sourced.[1]
Jaxsta is the world’s only official music credits database, The credits are official as they are provided directly by more than 355 data partners,[2] including record labels, publishers, distributors and industry associations. The database holds more than 340 million music credits, 105 million deep-linked pages and is available as an API providing programmatic access to the data. In November 2022 a new feature was added that matches works to recordings, allowing users of its database to secure lost royalties, source song licenses and syncs.[3]
Jaxsta was named Master of Metadata at the 2023 Music Business Association Bizzy Awards. The award recognizes significant impact data processing, credit clarification, streamlining and more. [4]
As of June 2023, Jaxsta has more than 355 data partner agreements in place.[5] Data partners include the three major labels, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, the Merlin Network[6] of independent music companies and unions including the American Federation of Musicians and SAG-AFTRA,[7] as well as independent distributors such as CDBaby, DistroKid[8] and SoundCloud Repost. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and The Recording Academy.
Jaxsta's business-to-business membership plan was launched on November 21, 2019.[9] It offered music industry specific tools such as chart alerts for artists and non-artists, industry events calendars, market insights and gave members the ability to claim and manage their Jaxsta profile page .[10]
In August 2021, to coincide with the return of paid memberships, Jaxsta introduced two levels of membership: Jaxsta Core, a free introductory membership, and Jaxsta Plus, which for $US49 a year offered members access to a suite of features such as Credit and Chart Alerts, the ability to claim their profile (or the profiles of those they represent), Prioritize Your Credits, and more.[11]
In June 2022 Jaxsta's membership plans evolved to reflect the music industry's demand for accurate metadata, resulting in the introduction of a further two levels of membership: Business and Enterprise. Jaxsta Plus was rebranded Creator, and Jaxsta Core became the free membership level.[12]
In November 2021, Jaxsta introduced the Jaxsta One Sheet in an effort to help music professionals create a "shareable resume".[13] The One Sheet is pre-populated by information on the user's Jaxsta profile, including credits, social media statistics, TikTok plays, contact details, bio, image and more.[13]
Vinyl.com went live on Monday 15 May, offering a catalog of vinyl records across all genres with verified creative contributions metadata on every album, ensuring that all parties involved in the creation of the albums are recognized, including artists, songwriters, producers, composers, engineers, musicians and any other contributors.[14]
Jaxsta was listed as a public company on the ASX on December 28, 2018.[15]
On September 10, 2020, Jaxsta announced a commercial agreement and an investment with Songtradr, the Los-Angeles-based global B2B music rights and licensing marketplace platform. Overall, the deal was worth A$1.92 million (including A$1.42 million via a convertible note).[16] Through this arrangement, Jaxsta members gained direct access to Songtradr’s Neighboring Rights revenue collection service, while Songtradr utilises Jaxsta’s music credits metadata to I.D. and scoop-up uncollected revenue.[16] In April 2022 Songtradr announced an additional investment of $A3.0 million via a secured convertible note.[17] In June 2023 Songtradr converted the loan into stock and became Jaxsta's largest shareholder.[18]21 June 2023 JAXSTA raised $3.0M with Cornerstone from WiseTech Founder and CEO, Richard White becoming a substantial shareholder with 9.64% as a result.[19]
On April 28, 2022, it was announced that Louez Schoorl would be moving into the Founder role, and former Chief Marketing Officer Beth Appleton would be Jaxsta's new CEO.[20] The Music Network reported that "the change will allow Louez Schoorl to focus on the Jaxsta product and our community and creative relationships".[21]
Appleton joined Jaxsta in July 2021 from Warner Music Australia, where she served as General Manager and Senior Vice President Marketing Australasia.[22]
Vampr, which launched in 2016, helps creatives and artists find people to work with, create new music and monetize their work through its features. Jaxsta announced the planned acquisition in February 2023 [23] which was completed June 2023.[24] The agreement expands Jaxsta’s user base by plugging it into Vampr’s 1.3 million-strong creator community.[25] Vampr’s founder and CEO Josh Simons joined Jaxsta as Chief Strategy Officer.
In December 2019, Jaxsta launched its podcast, Humans of Music, hosted by former Rolling Stone Australia editor Rod Yates.[26] Guests have included Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody, Billy Bragg, Bethany Cosentino, Neko Case, John Butler and M-Phazes.[26]
In June 2020, it was announced that Yates would head up Jaxsta's dedicated editorial portal.[27]
Jaxsta was founded in Sydney in 2015[28] by former movie and music industry professional Jacqui Louez Schoorl and her husband Louis Schoorl, a producer and songwriter.[29] Jaxsta has offices in Sydney and Los Angeles,[30] with representatives in London and New York.[31]
The idea for Jaxsta was first formulated by Louez Schoorl in 2006 when she was transitioning from the film to the music industry[32] and noticed music credits metadata was becoming lost with the transition to digital music,[32] as the credits that had once populated vinyl record sleeve and CD booklets were vanishing as downloading was becoming more prevalent.[33] Jaxsta derives its name from the credits on vinyl "jackets" (covers) – the stars of the jackets – i.e. liner notes.[7]
The company was launched in beta mode on June 13, 2019,[34] with the claim that it contained more than 100 million music credits, including those for 1.9 million songwriters, 1.3 million artists, 150,000 producers and 100,000 engineers.
On April 22, 2020 Jaxsta announced it was waiving the $US150 annual membership fee and making Jaxsta membership free for the rest of 2020 to assist the music industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.