NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Orchard today announced that it has partnered with global technology company Wise (formerly TransferWise) to offer a new service, which creates a faster, cheaper, more streamlined way for music labels to pay artists across multiple countries and currencies. The solution is being offered through The Orchard’s new Collaborators tool, which enables music labels to digitally split, track and send royalty payments to their artists and collaborators.
From today, any of The Orchard’s labels can access Wise’s lightning fast and low-cost cross-border payments, using The Orchard’s Collaborators tool. When using the new feature, a label can select who they wish to pay and opt to automatically convert currencies and send money to multiple artists in a single payment --- all at the mid-market rate.
At launch, labels from 27 countries will be able to send payments using the real exchange rate to their artists in 28 countries, including the US, UK, Japan, and Australia, as well as countries in the Eurozone.
Prashant Bahadur, EVP, Head of Strategy, The Orchard, said:
“This partnership and new offering with Wise focuses on creating new, tech-based solutions that empower creators. Many artists and labels faced challenges in the past that have been remedied by providing a solution to have a cohesive payment system through the Collaborators tool. By integrating the Wise Platform, we are enabling artists to not only get paid more quickly and efficiently, but to keep a greater share of their revenue.”
Indiemono is one of the first labels to use the new service, having trialled a beta version of the service. The independent label represents artists from across the globe, including Sweden’s Arc North, South California’s Zaide and Australia’s High Tropics.
Dam Fernández, Co-Founder, Indiemono, said:
“Paying artists, particularly artists based in other countries, has long been a hassle, but this has changed things. Now, with Wise available through The Orchard’s Collaborators feature, I am able to pay my artists quickly, easily and without needing to worry about the fees involved, using the same mid-market rate that I see on Google. The whole process is so much more efficient, allowing me to save time and focus on what really matters to me --- developing artists and sharing their music with the world.”
“We have gained significantly from using the new service. We are now able to pay all the artists at once instead of running individual bank transactions every time - and the transparency is perfect. The easy process has made us change the timings too, going from quarterly payments to monthly batch transactions. Having the Wise engine, with its tracking and clean dashboards, is honestly an amazing improvement.”
Wise Platform enables banks, financial institutions, and enterprises like Monzo, bunq, Xero and Google Pay to tap into Wise’s payments network to offer cheaper, faster transfers and payments to their own customers.
Steve Naudé, Head of Product, Wise Platform, said:
“We are proud to be teaming up with The Orchard to bring cheaper, faster, more transparent payments to the music industry and help make royalty payments to The Orchard’s artists as quick and as easy as it is for us to stream music today.”
“At Wise, our goal is to build a new global standard for moving and managing money, and we believe that easy, convenient and transparent payments should be available to everyone, everywhere. This partnership is one example of how important this mission is, with it helping artists get paid for their work. Working with like minded companies, like The Orchard, brings us closer to realising our vision.”
About Wise
Wise is a global technology company building the best way to move money around the world. Wise’s mission is to build money without borders – instant, convenient and transparent. The Wise Platform was built to bring international payments into the 21st century and is now used by banks and businesses in over 10 markets. Wise’s APIs replace the existing patchwork systems banks and other payment providers use to move money internationally.
In doing so, Wise Platform allows banks, larger businesses and software companies to tap into the Wise network and infrastructure to offer customers the same instant, convenient, low cost and transparent Wise experience end-to-end from within their own products and apps. Every transaction is made with the real mid market exchange rate for a low fee — regardless of region, amount, or currency. For more information on Wise Platform and capabilities, visit wise.com/us/business/api.
About The Orchard
The Orchard is a leading music distribution company operating in 45 offices worldwide. With comprehensive artist & label services including full-service marketing, sync licensing, video services, transparent data analysis, advertising, rights management, digital and physical distribution and more, The Orchard empowers creators and businesses to grow and adapt in the dynamic global industry. For further information, visit www.theorchard.com.