Soundreef Ltd – The Independent Management Entity controlled by Soundreef S.p.A. and led by Davide d’Atri – was in the spotlight during the 12th edition of the prestigious UK-Italy Business Boost Awards, held Thursday, November 29th, at Palazzo Mezzanotte, home of the Italian Stock Exchange in Milan.
With this ceremony – organized by the British Consulate-General in Milan and by the Department for International Trade (DIT) – the British government paid tribute to those excellent Italian businesses that have chosen the United Kingdom as a strategic base for their international development and also celebrated the success of those important British companies that have become established in the Italian market.
Davide d’Atri, the CEO of Soundreef S.p.A, and Francesco Danieli, the CEO of Soundreef Ltd, accepted the prize for innovative companies, awarded to Soundreef, an Italian-British scaleup company, for having revolutionised and digitalised the management of copyright protection. As of today, Soundreef manages the rights of more than 31,000 artists and music publishers around the world, which amount to a total of 275,000 pieces and over 250 million monthly listeners.
“England has always been a second home for us and the country represents an avant-garde model for the sector in which we operate,” – declared Francesco Danieli, the CEO of Soundreef Ltd. – “We are proud of this award, which recognises the value of the technological innovation that we have introduced into a market that, until 2014 at least, was basically managed as a monopoly in Italy.”
“Though Soundreef was born in England, it has always had an Italian soul”, – says Davide d’Atri, the CEO of Soundreef S.p.A. – “Receiving the Creative Industries Award is an enormous accomplishment. Over the years we have dealt with many challenges, especially in the political and regulatory areas. Finally, the antitrust organisation, with its decision on October 26th, has recognized the existence of the abuse of a dominant position, which over the years had unavoidably damaged our business. Now all that’s left is to definitively liberalise the market and encourage an organic reform of the sector, as proposed by the member of the Italian parliament Sergio Battelli.”
“Furthermore, following the suspension of proceedings initiated by the SIAE in 2014 against Soundreef, and therefore the deferment of the judicial process to the European Union’s Court of Justice, we are confidently heading towards the end of any kind of unjustified and harmful protectionism for authors and publishers,” – continues d’Atri – “Now, it is the government’s turn to fulfil its electoral promises and regularise this entire market by the end of the year, putting an end to the abuse of the dominant position perpetrated by the SIAE.”
