The way artists and labels get paid could finally become less byzantine if a sweeping new initiative is successful. Universal Music, Sony Music, and Warner Music have joined with Spotify, YouTube, Pandora, Netflix, SoundCloud, and SiriusXM in a remarkably broad-based effort to streamline digital music distribution and copyright issues. The Berklee College of Music's Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship (BerkleeICE) today announced the Open Music Initiative (OMI), which it will lead in cooperation with the MIT Media Lab. The major labels and streaming services are among more than 50 media entities working to build an open-source platform for tracking music creators and rights owners, BerkleeICE said. The goal is to improve how rights owners are identified and compensated for digital music.

Others signing agreements to participate in OMI, BerkleeICE said, include CD Baby, Tunecore, Downtown Music Publishing, Featured Artist Coalition, Music Managers Forum, Future of Music Coalition, Boston NPR affiliate WBUR, and various music licensing startups.

Panos Panay, co-­founder of OMI and founding managing director of BerkleeICE, said in a statement: “We want to use the brainpower, neutrality and convening ability of our collective academic institutions, along with broad industry collaboration, to create a shared digital architecture for the modern music business. We believe an open-sourced platform around creative rights can yield an innovation dividend for creators and rights holders alike.”

Zoë Keating, a cellist who has publicized the sparseness of online music royalties, said in her own statement accompanying BerkleeICE’s announcement: “[The] issues we face across the music industry are complex but what we want is simple: a thriving creative economy that benefits everyone, from creators to companies to consumers. Open Music presents an opportunity to solve some intractable problems and to change the narrative between music and tech.”

Read our exploration of the value of music over time, How Much Is Music Really Worth?