May 14, 2007

By By Antony Bruno, Denver

Digital distributor The Orchard has added an online synch-licensing tool to its Web site, designed to let music supervisors find and immediately purchase rights to The Orchard's catalogue.

MusicIP is powering the service, called Trackdown. Core to the service is a search tool that will match tracks in The Orchard's catalogue to specific terms given by users. For instance, a user could be looking for a song similar to that of a mainstream artist, and Trackdown will recommend a similar song by a less-expensive indie act.

The service initially will be available only to select music supervisors in the film, TV and advertising industries.

The Orchard and Music IP say they also are developing a consumer-facing application of some sort as well, potentially a digital music service.

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