Windows AzureCustomer Solution Case Study

Royalty Distributor Builds Cloud-Based Portal, Reduces Workload 95 Percent

OverviewCountry or Region: IrelandIndustry: Media and entertainment

Customer ProfileThe Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) distributes royalties for copyrighted music in Ireland on behalf of its members, which include songwriters, composers, and music publishers.

Business SituationFaced with a massive growth in data, IMRO built an automated system to track copyrighted works and royalty payments. It wanted to share the system with members through a self-service web portal, but keep its database on-premises.

SolutionIMRO decided to develop an Online Member Services portal on the Windows Azure platform to allow members to interact with their data, register new works, and identify performances.

Benefits Reduced workload Tightened security Lowered costs Improved member services Familiar development environment

“Members heard that our royalty system increased matches to musical performances. With the Windows Azure portal, members can see the system’s benefits, and data is exposed in a very secure way.”

Declan Rudden, Director of Distribution, Irish Music Rights Organisation

The Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) collects licensing fees for public performances of copyrighted music and distributes royalties to its members. In 2006, in collaboration with Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Spanish Point Technologies, it developed a system for matching performances to works in its Microsoft SQL Server database and calculating royalty payments. IMRO wanted to give members access to the system, and it decided to deploy a web portal to it on the Windows Azure platform. Within three months, the Online Member Services portal was launched. Members sign in using Windows Live IDs and can review royalty distributions and identify works as theirs. IMRO has benefited from a familiar development environment, reduced costs, and a significantly more efficient royalty distribution process. Its members benefit from access to exhaustive member data in a highly secure fashion.

SituationFormed in 1995, the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) is a nonprofit national organization that administers performing rights and distributes royalties for copyrighted music in Ireland on behalf of its members. Members include songwriters, composers, and music publishers, plus members of other international copyright organizations to which it is affiliated. Broadcasters, venues, and businesses that play copyrighted material must pay license fees known as public performance royalties through IMRO to the copyright owners. Typically, IMRO grants blanket licenses for an annual fee to large music users.

Of the 49 employees at IMRO, about half collect royalties and the other half distribute royalties. The organization also has workers in finance and IT who support the organization. It employs two developers who write code primarily by using Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, a development framework that can be used across a variety of programming tasks to rapidly build applications that integrate with other technologies.

In 2006, because of the emergence of additional radio stations as well as streaming and download music providers on the Internet, IMRO was faced with a massive growth in the amount of data it needed to process to serve its members. “Data was growing but revenue wasn’t keeping pace,” says Declan Rudden, Director of Distribution at IMRO. “We needed an IT solution that could automate our processes and address the disparity between data and revenue.”

IMRO hired Spanish Point Technologies, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, to build a system that would calculate royalty payments for music performances that take place in the public domain. Prior to developing this system, many of the royalty payment processes involved manual activities and paper. “We had a range of disjointed applications,” says Rudden. “We required two IT employees to move the data from one system to another. Effectively, our IT guys became bottlenecks in the process because nothing could be done without them.”

With the new system, which launched in 2007, all processes for matching performances and calculating how much and who to pay are automated. Large-scale music users and broadcast organizations—including concert promoters, radio and TV stations, ringtone providers, and download providers—deliver reports of every public performance that takes place in Ireland. The system uses business logic and a text-based indexing system to automate the royalty collection and distribution process.

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“Risks and delays were eliminated by using the Windows Azure platform. We saved between 40 and 60 percent on development costs because we were able to reuse .NET components in the cloud.”

Donal Cullen, CEO, Spanish Point Technologies

Each performance instance is recorded in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, which makes it possible to access the information in databases, reports, and applications. The system can automatically match at least 60 percent of the performance information to the records related to 14 million copyrighted musical works in the IMRO database, which is built on Microsoft SQL Server 2008 database software. IMRO also applies a process called “history matching” by which the system uses machine intelligence to learn text strings based on user input. By using a combination of automatic matching and history matching, about 96 percent of performances are matched.

By using this system, IMRO can process higher volumes of transactions without the need to increase staff. “For every public performance, the system allocates collected revenues based on information about the copyrighted works in the database,” says Rudden. “We collect a lot of information about how royalties are calculated and what the copyright holder gets paid for.”

The system also employs Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 to simplify interoperability and automate interactions; data flows in a loosely coupled system from one application to the next without human intervention. “BizTalk Server is really the spine of the system. It directs the data between the disparate applications,” says Rudden. “The minute we parse something in SharePoint, BizTalk Server drives the auto-matching workflows based on the status of a piece of data. It’s a flexible system and efficient to operate. Eventually, an IMRO distribution employee clicks a button to allocate the royalties.”

The system was a great success. It significantly improved the match rates of musical performances and increased process efficiencies such that the organization was able to reduce headcount and save money. The organization decided to extend the system’s functionality to IMRO members with a self-service web portal. The idea was that members could access the system through a flexible web interface to view royalty information in detail, as well as to add information about copyrighted works and download reports.

Because of the cyclical nature of public performances, IMRO wanted the member portal to scale as needed to support high-volume use during peak-demand periods. It needed to build on existing assets, deliver an enterprise-class solution, and minimize costs. IMRO also wanted to avoid setting up an expensive on-premises data center; however, it wanted sensitive member data to remain on-premises.

“The organization had classic workload requirements that were well suited to a cloud-based solution. Members go to the portal at regular intervals to check the status of their royalties, and there are times of peak demand,” says Donal Cullen, CEO of Spanish Point Technologies. “However, we were faced with a paradox, because IMRO wanted to take advantage of on-demand computing while maintaining sensitive member data on-premises.”

SolutionIMRO looked at a number of options, including building an on-premises server infrastructure and creating a hosted solution with a third-party provider. The

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“The Windows Azure platform is hosted in one of the largest data centers in Europe, and it includes a stringent SLA [service level agreement] for uptime while enabling services to scale as needed.… It’s been a great success.”

Declan Rudden, Director of Distribution, Irish Music Rights Organisation

organization decided it wanted to concentrate on the functionality of the application rather than concern itself with infrastructure or overhead. When Spanish Point Technologies suggested redeploying the royalty system’s .NET components to design a web interface for the royalty system on the Windows Azure platform—for scalability, security, and 24-hour-a-day availability—IMRO decided that would be a cost-effective, fast, and efficient solution.

Windows Azure is a cloud-services operating system that serves as a development, service hosting, and service management environment for the Windows Azure platform. It provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage web applications on the Internet through Microsoft data centers. By adopting the Windows Azure platform, IMRO would be able to focus on solving business problems and addressing members’ needs with a simple, reliable, and powerful platform for the creation of web applications and services.

“We decided to develop the IMRO Online Member Services portal on the Windows Azure platform as a way to show tangible benefits to our members,” says Rudden. “Members heard that our royalty system increased matches to musical performances. With the Windows Azure portal, members can see the system’s benefits, and data is exposed in a very secure way.”

Within three months, Spanish Point Technologies developed a cloud solution that integrated with the system that IMRO had previously developed. For example, it made sure that the system could

communicate with the company’s website, which is built in PHP. “It was important for us that the Windows Azure platform could host PHP applications,” says Rudden. “We needed to be able to consolidate our website and the member portal on the same platform.”

Developers had built the back-end royalty system by using the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional development system, and they had used the .NET Framework to create custom components such as objects for finding a member, searching for a work, or matching a work to a public performance. It was a simple matter to port that code to the cloud. The Online Member Services portal went live in March 2010.

“One of the great advantages of Windows Azure is that the technology we used to build the portal is familiar and reliable,” says Cullen. “We very easily moved the back-end system’s components into the cloud with an insignificant amount of recoding.”

One of the challenges that Spanish Point Technologies had to address was how it would protect sensitive member information in the cloud. IMRO had specified that it wanted data to remain largely on-premises. Only information needed to fulfill an interaction would be available through the portal. Says Cullen, “To build the Online Member Services portal, we moved the assets we’d developed for the back-end system directly to the Windows Azure platform, and then used web services to connect the portal to the on-premises SQL Server database, where the sensitive data resides.”

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“One of the great advantages of Windows Azure is that the technology we used to build the portal is familiar and reliable."

Donal Cullen, CEO, Spanish Point Technologies

Members can sign in to the Online Member Services portal by using their Windows Live IDs and review a product—say, a movie—that contains 50 musical pieces. They can then drill into the data and view queue sheets to find out if the correct durations are recorded and when their compositions were played.

A royalty payment is due for each performance of a song, and royalties are calculated by establishing the total number of seconds of music the broadcaster plays in a given period. (See Figure 1.) The distribution is divided by the amount of money collected from that broadcaster for the period. This means there is a cash value per second of music known as a “point value.” Payment is calculated by multiplying the point value by the total number of seconds a given musical work was used.

Other available information from the portal includes an inventory of each artist’s works, how works are stored, any instance of the work being performed or played, what royalty payments were distributed, and how payments were calculated. Additional details may include the name of the radio program on which a song was played, and even the name of the DJ that played the piece. “The royalty statements are so granular,” says Rudden. “It plainly illustrates how if something gets played, you get paid. This gives our members comfort because our calculations are transparent and precise.”

Moreover, the system manages “unidentified performances”—performances that can’t be matched to information in the database. Sometimes performances can’t be identified because

the quality of data received from a radio station or a TV station, for example, isn’t sufficient to identify a piece of music. By using IMRO Online Member Services, members can search unidentified performances and designate their own works. “It’s like crowd sourcing. We allow our members to match works that we’ve been unable to match,” says Rudden. Once they assign their member number to an unidentified work, the royalty distribution team conducts an approval process on the claim.

Additionally, artists can use Online Member Services to register new works that they have just written or published, add information about their live performances, and enter set lists played at particular venues and on particular dates. They can report performances of cover songs or original compositions. IMRO has semiannual deadlines for reporting these live performances, and that’s when demand tends to spike on the portal. Members also can view and download interactive statements to see which stations or online providers played their works. Members can see all the data that IMRO has stored that’s related to their musical works.

BenefitsIMRO realized that it was more cost-effective to move the existing royalty system to a cloud-based Windows Azure web portal. The complexity of providing an always-available web portal could be outsourced to Microsoft, reducing the burden on IMRO staff members and removing the risks of managing a server infrastructure. The organization has benefited from workload efficiencies, high-quality security parameters, reduced costs,

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“Writing code for Windows Azure was as simple and efficient as writing a new on-premises module in Visual Studio.”

Donal Cullen, CEO, Spanish Point Technologies

enhanced member services, and a familiar development environment.

“Our members are amazed by the Online Member Services functionality,” says Rudden. “Plus, the Windows Azure platform is hosted in one of the largest data centers in Europe, and it includes a stringent SLA [service level agreement] while enabling services to scale as needed by transaction volumes. It’s been a great success.”

Reduced WorkloadUntil IMRO launched the Online Member Services portal, all registrations of works were conducted manually by using paper and data entry. Now that the portal is live, fewer than 5 percent of the registrations are done manually. Typically, IMRO receives approximately 300 work registrations a week, so the portal has effectively reduced the organization’s registration workload by 95 percent.

Additionally, because members can now easily match performances to their copyrighted works by using the portal,

IMRO staff members are relieved of that task. Because of these efficiencies, the organization has been able to reduce the headcount of its distribution department from 16 to 14 employees.

Tightened SecurityIMRO members sign in to Online Member Services at all times of the day and night. Because of the resiliency of Windows Live ID, which is integrated into the portal, if members forget their passwords, they can easily reset them using standard functionality. “If there’s been any criticism from our members, it’s that the security parameters are too high,” says Rudden. “Among other security parameters, when you set a password, Windows Live ID tells you whether the password is strong enough or not. You also have to provide a unique member number to access the system. It’s quite secure.”Lowered CostsBecause IMRO avoided investments in servers, firewalls, and other infrastructure required to meet peak load requirements on the system, it saved at least U.S.$20,000 on capital expenditures. Additionally, the organization and its systems integration partner had to do very little development work to quickly get a secure and stable web portal operational on the Windows Azure platform. “Risks and delays were eliminated by using the Windows Azure platform,” says Cullen. “We saved between 40 and 60 percent on development costs because we were able to reuse .NET components in the cloud.”

Improved Member ServicesIMRO easily leveraged its existing .NET assets to expose complex functionality to its members through the Online Member Services portal. Now, members can interact with their copyrighted works and royalty information in detail through a seamless

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Figure 1 - IMRO royalty distributions are based on the number of seconds of music a broadcaster plays in a given period.

connection with the back-end royalty system. Everything is transparent. “Sometimes the payments are miniscule—for example, an artist doesn’t earn much when a song is streamed or downloaded,” says Rudden. “It still gives our members comfort because we’ve managed to collect the data, match, and pay the royalties.”

Familiar Development EnvironmentWhen IMRO decided to develop its portal by using the Windows Azure platform, a key consideration was the ability to concentrate its efforts on delivering functionality. “Writing code for Windows Azure was as simple and efficient as writing a new on-premises module in Visual Studio,” says Cullen. “Our software developers were basically just reusing existing components. Writing for the cloud required no incremental effort.”

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Windows Azure PlatformThe Windows Azure platform provides an excellent foundation for expanding online product and service offerings. The main components include: Windows Azure. Windows Azure is

the development, service hosting, and service management environment for the Windows Azure platform. It provides developers with on-demand compute, storage, and bandwidth, and a content distribution network to host, scale, and manage web applications through Microsoft data centers.

Microsoft SQL Azure. Microsoft SQL Azure offers the first cloud-based relational and self-managed database service built on Microsoft SQL Server technologies.

Windows Azure platform AppFabric. With Windows Azure AppFabric, developers can build and manage applications more easily both on-premises and in the cloud.

− AppFabric Service Bus connects services and applications across network boundaries to help developers build distributed applications.

− AppFabric Access Control provides federated, claims-based access control for REST web services.

Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket. Developers and information workers can use the new service DataMarket to easily discover, purchase, and manage premium data subscriptions in the Windows Azure platform.

To learn more, visit: www.microsoft.com/windowsazure

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For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:www.microsoft.com

For more information about Spanish Point Technologies products and services, call (353) (1) 65 22000 or visit the website at: www.spanishpoint.ie

For more information about the Irish Music Rights Organisation products and services, call (353) (1) 6614 844 or visit the website at: www.imro.ie

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published January 2011

Software and Services Windows Azure Platform− Windows Azure

Windows Server Product Portfolio− Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006− Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010− Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2

Microsoft Visual Studio− Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

Professional Technologies− Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5

Services− Windows Live ID

Partners Spanish Point Technologies