STOCKHOLM, Sweden, April 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Soundtrack Your Brand Founder, CEO & Chairman, Ola Sars, has been named to Billboard's prestigious 2021 International Power Players list. Each year, Billboard's International Power Players list recognizes high-achieving music executives whose primary responsibility is outside the United States. According to Billboard, the 2021 International Power Players feature reflects "an unprecedented time in our industry. Our goal in recognizing honorees is also to acknowledge the resiliency, strength and activism of the global music business."
Sars recently concluded the roll out of Soundtrack Unlimited, bringing more than 15,000 rights holders onboard, including Sony Music, Warner Music, Merlin and Universal Music Group for the launch of the world's first B2B on-demand service, all the while navigating the company through the Covid-19 pandemic which had an undeniable impact on the industries served by Soundtrack. As a company serving restaurants, retail and hotels as its core customer groups, 2020 was brutal for the B2B markets, yet Sars was able to lead the company through these difficult times and still produce strong growth.
"I am humbled to be included in this industry leading list alongside amazing fellow music industry colleagues. The industry's future growth will be driven by the international markets," adds Sars. "Being selected by Billboard, furthers my motivation at Soundtrack to keep fighting to fix the broken background music market."
Soundtrack has been architecting the global business model for B2B-music-streaming, moving the antiquated background music market into the streaming era to bring transparency, compliance, fair compensation and correct flow-through of royalties to artists and composers when their music is played in commercial spaces. Over the past 12 months, Soundtrack Your Brand launched the world's first on-demand B2B music-streaming product, giving businesses for the first time a music solution that is on par with popular consumer streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music.
The newly launched on-demand product increases label royalties by 6x-10x per subscription over consumer streaming services. Soundtrack's model is based on full song trackability, offering artists usage-based compensation and clear accountability when their music is played in a commercial environment such as a restaurant, bar, shop, gym, hotel, etc.
Soundtrack Your Brand gives businesses the power to stream music legally in their establishments, all while enabling a higher royalty output for rights holders. Soundtrack is on a mission to increase the value of music to ensure music creators are properly compensated for their art and is already being used by over 20,000 brands globally in 74 markets, including W Hotels, J. Crew, McDonald's Lululemon and more.
Sars joins executives from such esteemed companies as Spotify, Live Nation, Universal, Sony, Disney, YouTube, Amazon, Apple and more on this year's list.
Prior to founding Soundtrack, he co-founded Spotify Business together with Spotify, a stand-alone effort to expand Spotify's reach into B2B streaming. In 2018, he pivoted Spotify Business into Soundtrack as a fully independent brand and business. Previous to co-founding Spotify Business, he was the co-founder and COO of Beats Music, acquired by Apple and transformed into Apple Music, as well as the co-founder of Pacemaker, the world's first DJ driven music platform.
A Stockholm based serial entrepreneur active in the music-tech space, Sars' driving force behind his repeated efforts in transforming the music market comes from his conviction that music is undervalued as an art-form and that the music industry offers significant opportunity for value improvement and growth. www.soundtrackyourbrand.com
Media Contacts: Patricia Hoyos Rogers, The Tag Experience, patricia@thetagexperience.com
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