Date/Time
Date(s) -
10/13/2020
2:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Location
Zoom

We all worked hard to get the MMA passed and now, as a result of that effort, the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) train has left the station and is steaming towards us at full speed. There’s no stopping it.
The opportunity is upon us to get our metadata together and rally ourselves to a combined effort of metadata congruency.Here is just a taste of what we will be covering:
- What is metadata? And why has it become so important now?
- How to get it and organize it?
- What will the MLC require from us?
- How will it help us?
- How can we ourselves help the MLC succeed?
- How do we keep the unity of MMA achievement alive?
- What changes will we see in our relationships with our co-publishers and our songwriters?
Tuesday, October 13th, 2020
2:30 PM PDT – 3:30 PM PDT
Moderator:
Rene Merideth | COO/Co-Founder, Exploration Group
Panelists:
Dae Bogan | Head of Third-Party Partnerships, The Mechanical Licensing Collective
Abby North | Owner, North Music Group
Jeff Cvetkovski | VP of Operations, Exploration Group
Zoom Registration Link
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BIOGRAPHIES
Rene Merideth | COO/Co-Founder, Exploration Group
Rene Merideth’s voyage to COO and Co-Founder of Exploration, a digital media rights management company, began in rural Missouri. As a preternaturally musical 6-year-old learning backline for her grandfather’s touring gospel band, Rene found her way from churchyard guitar pulls to a formal music business education at Belmont University in Nashville. After graduation, she headed to Los Angeles, where she began her career in music publishing. Starting as a Mechanical Licensing Manager at Windswept in 2001, she then served as Director of Licensing at Bug Music, Director of Licensing at BMG Chrysalis, and VP of Operations at AdShare.
However, it was her hobby of coaching and photographing rugby that lead her to meet her eventual business partner Aaron Davis. In 2014, they founded Exploration, which is committed to help music publishers, record labels, and TV/film companies protect and administer their musical works. She and Aaron combined their expertise in music publishing and software engineering to create a powerful software dedicated to metadata organization and distribution: Exploration Data is free and available exclusively to the company’s clients. Rene, based in Culver City, is primarily responsible for copyright, licensing, and royalties. The company represents 4.3 million copyrights (not including production music) from over 200 clients, who combined had in excess of 12.5 billion average monthly asset views in 2019.
Rene has been a speaker and writer at events and publications produced by Billboard, the National Association of Recording Industry Professionals (NARIP), the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP), the California Copyright Conference (CCC), and others. In addition, she hosts her own podcast called “Red Dragon Sessions,” where she tells stories – good and bad – about her childhood and her time on the road. Rene is also an active contributor to the Steven Tyler’s Janie’s Fund, a non-profit organization helping young women overcome abuse and neglect.
Dae Bogan | Head of Third-Party Partnerships, The Mechanical Licensing Collective
Dae Bogan serves as Head of Third-Party Partnerships for The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC), where he leads The MLC’s strategy for engaging third-party entities to support initiatives in rights administration, data management, operations, and membership services.
A passionate music creators’ rights advocate who enjoys exploring the global music rights landscape through the lens of business and technology, Bogan is also an adjunct lecturer at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. In this role, Bogan develops and teaches the music industry entrepreneurship course for which he was recognized in Billboard’s “The 15 Best Music Business Schools In 2017.”
Prior to joining The MLC and teaching at UCLA, Bogan’s passion for innovation at the intersection of music and technology led him to found three companies: music rights administration technology company TuneRegistry, unclaimed music royalties and licenses search engine RoyaltyClaim, and in-store music video network Maven Promo. Each of these companies has since been acquired.
Early in his career, Bogan worked directly and more creatively with recording artists, songwriters, music producers, and DJs as the owner-operator of an independent record label, a music publishing company, and a boutique artist management firm before pivoting into technology in 2012.
Dae holds an MA in Music Industry Administration with a focus on music publishing and copyright administration from California State University, Northridge and a BA in sociology from the University of California. He resides in Los Angeles, California where he organizes SoCal Music Industry Professionals, an informal networking community of music industry professionals who live in Southern California.
Abby North | Owner, North Music Group
Abby North is principal of North Music Group LLC and a founder of Unchained Melody Publishing LLC. Abby began her music career as a songwriter and composer, and launched her first production music library 15 years ago.
Abby has experience in all areas of music publishing, from creative to administrative. She has vast experience in works registration, a strong knowledge of music publishing data and databases, and a background developing royalty processing and CWR works registration software tools.
Abby regularly advises estates on catalog management, termination rights and strategic growth concepts.
Abby is involved in several tech-forward, cutting-edge working groups and initiatives in the music licensing and metadata areas. She consults and advises companies in the financial sector and music industries regarding these issues. Abby is a board member of the Los Angeles Chapter of the AIMP, and a member of NMPA’s Team 100, the Television Academy, the Guild of Music Supervisors, the CCC, Women in Music, SONA, the SCL and MMF-US (Music Managers Forum-US).
Jeff Cvetkovski | VP of Operations, Exploration Group
Jeff Cvetkovski is the Vice President of Operations at Exploration Group, and oversees the company’s mechanicals rights, performance rights, sub-publishing, and sound recording departments. Jeff joined Exploration in 2016 as a Copyright/Conflicts Manager in the YouTube area, before spearheading the company’s expansion in rights administration.
Prior to joining Exploration, Jeff held a variety of positions in music copyright administration and music licensing, including with Music Reports, Wishing Well Pictures (as the music supervisor for the film The Challenger), and also began his own music publishing company – Final Play Music Group – with his older brother, a songwriter. Final Play was initially established for their sync licensing, but now continues to stay active with more traditional publishing administration.
Jeff is a lifelong music fan, as well as a musician, and is very passionate about the music publishing side of the industry. He cites his inability to be able to write his own songs as the precursor to his fascination with music publishing and songwriting. This fueled his passion to manage the copyrights of songwriters and music publishers in order to make sure they are receiving all the royalties they are rightfully owed.
Jeff graduated with a Bachelor’s in Music Business from the State University of New York at Fredonia, and currently resides in Los Angeles.
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