Jaxsta

Jaxsta is an Australian tech start-up seeking to become the world’s most comprehensive source of official music credits.. According to a 2018 report in the Sydney Morning Herald, “it wants to be a cross between Bloomberg and LinkedIn, a trusted source for the music industry when it comes to finding out who played what role on your favourite songs”. This extends to performers, artists, engineers, producers and songwriters. 
 
Jaxsta’s data is content-owner supplied rather than crowd-sourced.
 
= History =
Jaxsta was founded in Sydney in 2015 by former movie and music industry professional Jacqui Louez Schoorl and her husband Louis Schoorl, an ARIA-nominated producer and songwriter whose credits include 5 Seconds Of Summer, Backstreet Boys, Kesha, Charlotte Lawrence and Daniel Johns. Jaxsta has offices in Sydney, London, New York and Los Angeles.
The idea for Jaxsta was first formulated by Louez Schoorl in 2006 when she was transitioning from the film to the music industry. While credits on a film production are a given, she noticed music credits metadata was becoming lost with the transition to digital music, and that the credits that had once populated vinyl record sleeves and CD booklets were vanishing as downloading was becoming more prevalent.
Jaxsta derives its name from the credits on vinyl jackets (covers) – ie. those credited with songwriting, production, performer and other roles.
 
The company was launched in beta mode on June 13, 2019, 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.  
As of June 2020 those numbers had risen to over 115 million official credits, 43 million individual web pages, 30 million unique recordings credits and 15 million profiles, with 100,000 new credits processed each day.
 
Upon its beta launch, Jaxsta had numerous data partner agreements in place, giving it access to more than 80% of global music releases. Its data partners include the three major labels, the Merlin network of independent music companies and unions including the American Federation of Musicians and SAG-AFTRA. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), The Recording Academy (the GRAMMYs) and the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) are also data partners.
Jaxsta was listed as a public company on the ASX on December 28, 2018.
= Jaxsta Pro =
Jaxsta’s B2B subscription platform, Jaxsta Pro, was launched on November 21, 2019. It is designed to help music industry professionals connect, create career opportunities and enhance their careers by offering tools such as industry events calendars, market insights, chart alerts for artists and non-artists, and by giving Jaxsta Pro members the ability to claim and manage their Jaxsta profile page. 
 
On April 22 Jaxsta announced it was waiving the $US150 annual membership fee and making Jaxsta Pro free for the rest of 2020 to assist the music industry during the COVID-19 pandemic
The initiative was endorsed by organisations such as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Recording Academy, American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), the Music Business Association (Music Biz), the UK’s Association of Independent Music (AIM), and several Australian organisations. It was also endorsed by SoundExchange, ARIA and Merlin, and by artists and industry professionals such as Questlove, Rita Wilson and Grammy-winning engineers John Hanes and Emily Lazar.
As of September 2020, Jaxsta Pro has 60,000 members.
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 is worth A$1.92 million (including A$1.42 million via a convertible note).
Through this exclusive arrangement, Jaxsta Pro members will gain direct access to Songtradr’s Neighbouring Rights revenue collection service, while Songtradr will utilise Jaxsta’s music credits metadata to I.D. and scoop-up uncollected revenue.
In December 2019, Jaxsta launched its podcast, Humans Of Music, hosted by former Rolling Stone Australia editor Rod Yates. Guests have included Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody, Billy Bragg, Bethany Cosentino, Neko Case, John Butler and M-Phazes.
In June 2020 it was announced Rod Yates would head up Jaxsta’s dedicated editorial portal.
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