Charles Caldas

Webit Speaker, CEO, Merlin Network

Charles Caldas is CEO of Merlin – the global rights agency representing the world’s most important independent music companies.

Merlin acts to ensure its members have effective access to new and emerging revenue streams and that their rights are appropriately valued and protected. These members embody over 20,000 independent record labels and distributors, representing some of the world’s most important independent artists, and command around a 10% share of the global and US music market.

Since commencing operations in May 2008, Merlin has licensed the world’s leading new-generation digital music services, including Beats Music, Spotify, YouTube Music Key, Google Play, Pandora, Rdio and Deezer. Merlin has enabled these services to efficiently and globally license - via a single deal, instead of hundreds of individual local deals – the world’s most important and commercially successful independent music labels. The organisation has also reached a number of copyright infringement settlements on behalf of its members with – among others – Limewire, XM Satellite Radio and Grooveshark. In 2013, Merlin was named by Fast Company magazine as one of the five most innovative music companies in the world.