TBILISI, Georgia (CelebrityAccess) — The Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPOA), a new collective rights management organization (CMO) covering artists in the former Soviet state of Georgia, has announced its official launch.

Accredited by the National Center for Intellectual Property of Georgia, SAKPATENTI, IPOA will oversee the collection of royalties on behalf of Georgian recording artists and songwriters, while establishing and maintaining relationships with other royalty collection societies around the world.

“Georgian artists wanted to reap the benefits of European approaches to accountability and transparency, combined with American expertise in rights management, all while maintaining their unique artistic spirit and vision,” explains Stefan Schulz, veteran music innovation and label executive and IPOA’s director of international relations. “The world needs to know more about Georgia’s distinctive and impressive music, and its artists deserve to be rewarded for their contributions.”

The IPOA will succeed the Georgian Collection Society, which was created after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, but the organisation was criticised for its high costs and inefficiencies.

According to the IPOA, the organization will operate differently from the GCA.

“Our spending is limited by law,” said Giorgi Nikolaishvilli, IPOA’s Director General, “and our commitment to service is high, in part because we are an artist-founded organization.”

As part of the new approach, IPOA will use a single technology platform that will allow users to monitor and track usage, manage entitlements and accounting, eliminating the need for multiple vendors and streamlining the entire process.

Artists can access detailed royalty reports through their account on the IPOA website and companies that play licensed music will be able to ensure they are paying the appropriate fees for the use of copyrighted music.

“It turned out that we can live in a different way and have more time for our art, establishing a better commercial base for artists here,” said Georgian composer and music teacher Kakha Tsabadze. “Now that this base has been built, Georgian artists are discovering that they can finance their own concepts with the profits from their creativity. It is truly inspiring.”