Director of Waterford Institute of Technology, Professor Kieran R Byrne, today congratulated Muzu.tv, the music video and social networking enterprise which got critical research and development (R&D) support from WIT’s ArcLabs research and innovation centre after the award-winning group signed a major licensing deal giving it legitimate rights to footage of artists such as Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, White Stripes and Adele.

Professor Byrne said the six software developers based in Waterford who now provide all the technical back-up and support for Muzu.tv, are to be warmly congratulated for securing the deal with Merlin, which represents  the world’s most important set of independent music rights.

For Muzu, the deal will further boost its offering, and adds to the deals it has signed in some territories with the four major labels: Universal, EMI, Sony and Warner.

Muzu.tv pays artists 50 per cent of all advertising revenues generated by their content. Videos by many artists covered by the deal can still be watched on YouTube, but the uploads are not legitimate, which means that artists do not receive payment when they are played.

Prof Byrne said that it was particularly gratifying to note that Muzu’s status as the legitimate player of purely music content meant it secures advertising rates that are 10-15 times those secured by YouTube.

Muzu has raised more than €6 million in funding to date and employs 15 people between Dublin and its Waterford base at WIT’s Western Campus at Carriganore. Muzu.tv allows users to create, watch and share music video play-lists, and has clips from concerts, documentaries and interviews.

Muzu’s founders were named as the 2009 Net Visionaries by the Irish Internet Association. The site has two million unique users. Some seven million music videos a month are played through the site and this is growing 30 per cent month-on-month.

“Were it not for ArcLabs, Muzu would most likely have based its software development in Dublin,” said Professor Byrne. “This company is at the cutting edge of technology while simultaneously exhibiting an excellent grasp of commercial opportunities which winning products can secure. Muzu.tv is an example of how Ireland can compete on a global basis in the knowledge economy provided we have the correct infrastructure to nurture talent.

“ArcLabs provided Muzu with the necessary incubation space and technical support at a critical time in its development. This back-up certainly spurred its decision to locate its software development centre here in Waterford,” added the Director.

Muzu.tv was set up in 2006 by Mark French and Ciaran Bollard, who is currently CEO of the company.  

Said Ciaran Bollard: “We made a clear decision at the outset when setting up Muzu.tv to separate our research and development activities from sales and marketing and we were so impressed with the facilities and the innovations and skills of the ArcLabs team in Waterford that we decided to base our R & D headquarters there.”

Prof. Byrne declared, “This is a very clear example of how Research and Development generates knowledge, and how that knowledge in turn can be sold into the market.  This is a concise example of knowledge-transfer which boosts the regional economy very, very significantly and with a stronger university branding the Institute will be able to multiply on this success to ensure that the South East region can recover quickly and defiantly from the economic downturn and recession.”

According to Colm Harte of the Muzu.tv team in Waterford "When MUZU decided to base their R&D facilities in Waterford I was delighted at the opportunity to set up development group. Arclabs provided an excellent skill base from which to build the MUZU R&D team with all but one of the current team being graduates from WIT."

The ArcLabs Research and Innovation Centre at Carriganore is a hot-bed of research, enterprise and education programmes with a growing number of start-up, spin-out and spin-in companies building their business ventures and making an impact, not only locally but globally.

The purpose-designed 2,350-m2 facility, built at a cost of €5 million with funding from Enterprise Ireland, the Higher Education Authority and AIB, is home to the internationally-renowned Telecommunications Software and Systems Group (TSSG), the ArcLabs business incubator and the highly successful South East Enterprise Platform Programme (SEEPP).

With almost 150 full-time researchers, TSSG is now Ireland’s largest ICT software research group with a world-wide reputation for excellence.

-          For further details on ArcLabs, visit www.arclabs.ie

More news