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Former Kobalt exec Simon Dennett joins music rights tech firm Spanish Point as Chief Product Officer
Former Kobalt executive Simon Dennett has joined Irish technology company Spanish Point Technologies as Chief Product Officer. He will lead the international expansion of Matching Engine, its music rights platform used by collective management organisations, as demand grows for systems that can handle increasingly complex data and AI-related challenges.
Dennett spent 14 years at Kobalt in product, technology and commercial roles, helping develop its digital collection society amra and products supporting AWAL. Matching Engine, launched in 2018 and built on Microsoft Azure, serves organisations including IMRO, SOCAN, TONO and Koda across 13 countries. Spanish Point says its clients are expected to distribute more than €1.2 billion in royalties to over 500,000 creators and rights holders this year; the company has also appointed technology investor Brian Caulfield as chair and grown to more than 120 staff.
In short
- Simon Dennett will lead Matching Engine’s international expansion.
- The platform serves CMOs in 13 countries.
- Clients expect to distribute over €1.2 billion in royalties this year.
Explained simply
Collective management organisations represent songwriters, composers and other rights holders, licensing their music and collecting royalties when it is used. They then distribute those payments to the people and organisations entitled to them. Matching Engine is software designed to help these organisations manage rights information and royalty payments.
Spanish Point Technologies is an Irish software company, and its Matching Engine platform is used by music rights organisations in several countries. Simon Dennett previously held product, technology and commercial roles at Kobalt, a music services company. His new role links his experience in music technology with Spanish Point’s work on rights management systems.
Accurate rights data helps ensure royalties reach the correct creators and rights holders. Music use and ownership records can be complex, and new uses of data and AI add further challenges for the organisations managing them.
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