Client Overview
The client is the world’s leading music company, operating across recorded music, publishing, merchandising, and audiovisual content in more than 60 countries. The organization processes billions of digital usage events annually across global streaming platforms.
Rapid digital growth, combined with acquisitions and decentralized technology ownership, led to fragmented systems and increasing operational complexity. Legacy platforms were not designed to handle today’s metadata volumes, usage patterns, or governance requirements.
Leadership initiated a modernization effort to improve royalty accuracy, strengthen metadata governance, and regain control over application sprawl. The transformation focused on establishing scalable operational foundations to support continued digital growth.
Customer Challenge
Key challenges
Fragmented internal notifications
Approximately 16 separate systems managed notifications, requiring employees to move between platforms and slowing operational response times.
Inconsistent royalty attribution
Disparate metadata models and manual processes made it difficult to reliably link usage events to compositions, increasing risk in royalty calculations.
Metadata scale limitations
Legacy infrastructure could not efficiently support the rapid growth of streaming data and associated metadata.
Application sprawl
Over 1,500 applications were tracked in a CMDB with inconsistent data quality, limiting visibility and slowing rationalization decisions.
What was at stake?
Without modernization, operational inefficiencies would continue to grow alongside digital consumption. Royalty calculations risked reduced transparency and increased audit exposure. Application complexity would drive cost and governance challenges, limiting leadership’s ability to prioritize strategic investments.
A unified, scalable foundation was required to support growth while restoring clarity across data, platforms, and decision-making.
Ness Solution
Ness partnered with the client on a multi-year transformation to unify operational platforms, modernize metadata governance, and introduce a structured framework for application rationalization across the enterprise.
Key initiatives
Unified notification platform
Consolidated ~16 legacy notification systems into a single cloud-native platform built on Google Cloud and Firebase, creating a centralized real-time communication hub with secure access and synchronized updates.
Royalty and metadata model unification
Assessed internal systems and external data sources; designed a unified revenue attribution model; consolidated ingestion from Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and TikTok; and implemented an authoritative metadata repository with advanced matching capabilities.
Metadata scale and platform modernization
Scaled infrastructure from 500,000 to more than 100 million metadata records within one year through automated ingestion pipelines, improved deduplication, and strengthened governance controls.
Application rationalization framework
Developed a structured framework covering 1,500+ applications, including a custom scoring model evaluating business value, technical fit, and total cost of ownership. Introduced Gartner TIME model categories (Tolerate, Invest, Migrate, Eliminate) to guide consistent decision-making.
Engagement model
Ness worked cross-functionally with technology, operations, and business stakeholders to align platform modernization with enterprise priorities. Governance mechanisms were introduced to improve metadata standards, ownership clarity, and rationalization transparency.
By combining architectural modernization with structured evaluation frameworks, the organization was able to make informed decisions despite incomplete legacy data.
What Changed?
These changes reduced fragmentation and introduced structured governance across operational systems.
Business Outcomes
Strategic impact
The transformation moved the organization from fragmented systems and limited transparency to a more controlled and scalable operating model. Unified platforms and structured governance strengthened royalty attribution accuracy and reduced operational complexity.
Modernized metadata infrastructure provides a foundation for future automation, analytics, and AI-driven revenue initiatives. The introduction of a repeatable rationalization framework enables sustained cost discipline and improved portfolio management across the application landscape.
By addressing communication, metadata integrity, and application governance in parallel, the organization established a durable foundation for continued digital growth in a rapidly evolving music ecosystem.
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