EquaTrax Readies First Shared Royalty Platform (SRP) for Entertainment Industry

EquaTrax Readies First Shared Royalty Platform (SRP) for Entertainment Industry

System Is Delivered to Universal Music Group, Available to Other Record Companies

& Is Ready for Adaptation to Film Publishing & Other Media Companies

SRP Consolidates Industry's Backroom Functions for Increased Flexibility, Productivity, Transparency and Reduced Costs

SANTA MONICA, Aug. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- EquaTrax -- a joint venture between two major record labels and IT 2.0 solutions provider Exigen -- has delivered the beta version of the first Shared Royalty Platform (SRP) to Universal Music Group (UMG) for testing. The new system is designed to lower operational costs for a variety of entertainment media companies, including music, film and television. SRP will be in testing for six months followed by up to another six months of migration and implementation before going to live in 2009. EquaTrax developed the system over a period of four years and is making it available to other entertainment companies as a managed service which can be adapted to the needs of a client. http://www.equatrax.com/

Link to logo: http://dbaronmedia.com/gallery2/v/EQUATRAX/

The system was developed by EquaTrax in response to the opportunities facing the recording industry in the digital era. With the dramatic increase of digital activity in downloads, ringtones, and other formats, it was clear that a system designed to service the increasingly complex backroom functions in the area of royalty accounting and reporting would be a benefit.

To support the full range of media companies, the system interfaces directly with each client company's content management, sales, and financial systems. This enables the SRP system to produce real time royalty calculations, statements, payments and accounting entries. The system's rule-based engine can readily accommodate new products or regulatory changes -- such as the anticipated changes in U.S. copyright regulations. The system has already been configured to fully automate the new provisions of the American Federation of Musicians contracts.

Other key features are over 250 custom reports and the unique ability to perform "what if" scenarios to calculate the financial impact of various contract scenarios. The system also supports automatic recalculations of previously rendered statements when contracts change retroactively. Multi-entity support enables media companies to quickly integrate acquisitions or track multiple labels within a single company.

The unprecedented scale of the SRP platform -- which is expected to be able to process more transactions than any previous royalty system -- required four years and more than 60 man-years of research and development. An international team of system architects, developers, and industry experts built on Exigen's technology components to automate complex functions that were previously performed manually or by legacy systems.

"Continual changes in royalty streams, renegotiation of contracts, the advent of internet and mobile distribution and consolidation within the music and film industries have created a seismic shift of resources from core, income producing creative functions to accounting functions," stated Nick Henny, Vice Chairman & Chief Financial Officer of UMG. "The EquaTrax SRP can significantly relieve that stress on an organization."

While UMG will be its first customer, the EquaTrax SRP is scalable and flexible enough to be used across the industry -- by other music companies, film, gaming companies and book publishers.

"Our goal was to create a new model that could lower the cost of royalty and participation accounting for all media companies," said Exigen Capital Managing Director and EquaTrax Board Member Greg Shenkman. "All media and entertainment companies have to calculate royalties, and they need to be able to do so efficiently. The SRP will assist our clients in doing so and allow them to focus more on their strategic businesses."

John Dennis, former National Director of Residuals for the Screen Actors Guild, has worked on the EquaTrax system for the past eighteen months and said, "SRP can be readily adapted to meet the needs of film and television studios for residual accounting and payments. Since all Guild signatories must pay under the same contracts, this is a natural setting for a shared system and service."

In June 2004, UMG, Warner Music Group and Exigen formed EquaTrax, (formerly Royalty Services, LP), the joint venture that researched and developed the Shared Royalty Platform.

ABOUT UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP

Universal Music Group is the world's leading music company with wholly owned record operations or licensees in 77 countries. Its businesses also include Universal Music Publishing Group, the industry's leading global music publishing operation.

Universal Music Group's record labels include Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Disa, Emarcy, Fonovisa, Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Island Def Jam Music Group, Lost Highway Records, Machete Music, MCA Nashville, Mercury Nashville, Mercury Records, Philips, Polydor Records, Universal Motown Records Group, Universal Music Latino, Universal Records South, and Verve Music Group as well as a multitude of record labels owned or distributed by its record company subsidiaries around the world. The Universal Music Group owns the most extensive catalog of music in the industry, which includes the last 100 years of the world's most popular artists and their recordings. UMG's catalog is marketed through two distinct divisions, Universal Music Enterprises (in the U.S.) and Universal Strategic Marketing (outside the U.S.). Universal Music Group also includes eLabs, its new media and technologies division; Bravado, its merchandising company; Twenty-First Artists, its full service management division; and Helter Skelter, its live music agency.

Universal Music Group is a unit of Vivendi, a global media and communications company.

ABOUT EXIGEN GROUP

Exigen Group is a provider of economically aligned IT 2.0 solutions that maximize economic returns from IT and ensure successful implementation of large-scale corporate initiatives. Exigen's innovative co-investment approach aligns IT initiatives with corporate priorities. Over 300 corporations use Exigen's solutions worldwide, across Insurance, Banking, Capital Markets, Media, Communications, Government and other industry sectors.

ABOUT EQUATRAX

EquaTrax was formed in 2004 as a joint venture between two major records labels and I.T. 2.0 provider Exigen, a multi-national global business process solutions company focused on lowering the total cost of operations for customers. The first product to be delivered by EquaTrax is the Shared Royalty Platform. SRP is a full service record royalty accounting system which includes artist, copyright and union calculations and statements supported by a full interface to the user's accounting system. A highlight of the functionality is advanced workflow management which will lead to significant improvement in productivity. The Beta version of the system was delivered to Universal Music Group in July, 2008.

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Source: EquaTrax

CONTACT: Diana Baron of media relations inc., +1-310-315-5444,
diana@dbaronmedia.com, for EquaTrax; or Marjorie Fieldman, Interim CEO of
EquaTrax, +1-310-961-0690, marjorie_fieldman@equatrax.com; or Peter
LoFrumento, Senior Vice-President of Corporate Communications of Universal
Music Group, +1-212-331-2585, peter.lofrumento@umusic.com; or Fred Eisler,
Vice-President Royalty applications of Universal Music Group, +1-818-286-6511,
fred.eisler@umusic.com; or Alex Poberezhsky of Exigen, General Manager Media
Services, +1-646-416-5525, Alex_Poberezhsky@exigengroup.com

Web site: http://www.equatrax.com/

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