Less Than A Month After Dominique Derwa Presented Kollector At The World Copyright Peak In Brussels, The Leading Edge Airplay-Tracking System Is Monitoring More Than 1,500 Stations In 52 States Around The World.

BRUSSELS Less than a month after Dominique Derwa presented Kollector at the World Copyright Summit in Brussels, the cutting edge airplay-tracking system is monitoring more than 1,500 stations in 52 countries worldwide . The newest additions to the Kollector database include some forty German and 60 South American stations.

The idea for Kollector was launched by co-founders Derwa and recording studio owner Pascal Flamme ; in December last year, the two founded the company and started to do research on the radio airplay tracking.

After a demonstration of Kollector, Universal Music Belgium made a decision to submit a considerable number of track titles as a test case for the new system.

“With the Nielsen Music Control system we are provided weekly tallies of most-played songs on the radio in Belgium, with separate data for Flanders, Wallonia and the whole country, assembled as an airplay chart,” asserted Patrick Guns, marketing and sales director with Universal Music Belgium.

“With Jessie J, we’ve got a new signing with cross-border potential and already a number-one airplay hit ['Price Tag'] under the belt and a new single, ‘Nobody’s Perfect,’ just out ; this is an engaging artist to follow the world airplay,” claimed Guns.

“And it works. Kollector allows us to see precisely when, for example, Q-Music in Holland gave “Price Tag” a spin, or when NRJ France played LMFAO’s ‘Party Rock Anthem,’ another Universal release.”

Guns said the system, with accurate airplay data, allows Universal music to prepare promotion campaigns. For instance, if a specific track is gaining airplay on a considerable number of stations in France, where many Belgians spend their summer holidays, a label may decide to push the tune to Belgian stations too.

“But too much info may be a disadvantage,” expounded Guns. “When a single station in Australia, for example, is playing one of our tracks, we may make a decision not to base a promotion campaign on this. On the other hand, with Universal Music’s huge back catalogue, we now see that supposed conventional hit-radio stations were playing rather a lot of Bon Jovi’s older songs ahead of the band’s concert here in July. A bit of preparation and homework for radio promo folks could bring superb results with the Kollector information.”.

Christoffel Cocquyt of Gentle Management is the boss of Warner Music Benelux recording artist Selah Sue. He was invited for a beta-test of the system a quarter gone and submitted some a hundred songs to Kollector.

“It is a wonderful tool, especially when domestic artists go abroad,” announced Cocquyt. “Selah Sue’s eponymously titled album licensed for double platinum here and is charting in France, the Netherlands and Italy. It is a pan-European release and Kollector is providing us with sufficient data on airplay action.”

Cocquyt gathers that rights administration might have been Derwa and Flamme’s primary goal, but he’s persuaded that Kollector holds more advantages for artists, labels and chiefs.

“Selah Sue played shows in Munich and Berlin last week, and the results started dropping in shortly after. What you see is correct info and that’s what counts,” he said. “The Kollector data also put the idea of ‘rotation’ in a different standpoint, when the amount of plays should be available to label promo people.”

Kollector could also help fine-tuning promotion efforts.

Cocquyt cites the example where, during summer holidays, radio stations make an application for backstage interviews. With Kollector, bosses can build a true profile of a station before approving an interview.

“The one thing I would love to see with Kollector is that, while today we are able to follow singles airplay around the planet it might be fascinating to view an overall profile of an artist : Where are they playing Selah Sue’s singles? That will be great,” he revealed.

FOR RADIO

At press time, rock radio stations weren’t trialling Kollector, but Derwa said that, once the database contains enough titles, the system could ease administration of airplay reporting. Kollector could generate airplay listings immediately to provide to performance rights collection societies.

Johan Notenbaert, head of music at Q-Music and JOEfm expounded that now the airplay listings are generated from their Dalet 5.1 playout system and those logs are forwarded to Sabam, the Belgian author’s rights society, weekly. “We have an airplay ranking list, but for internal use,” Notenbaert announced.

Currently, Kollector is offering a free test version of the system via its web site ; Derwa wants to launch a commercial version by year-end.

“Our final promotional strategy is in full development, but the idea is that we are going to charge credits for each song clients wish to follow. The more credits clients buy, the less expensive they come and the more songs are monitored worldwide,” he revealed, writes radioworld.com.