MediaTechAppointments

Music copyright, licensing and processing hub ICE has appointed a chief technology officer.

Govinda Fichtner will spearhead the company’s approach to music copyright and online processing, ensuring ICE stays ahead of the modern data challenge. 

In his role, he will lead the development of new solutions to support the company’s CMO, as well as publisher customers in delivering value for their songwriters.

He joins ICE from web hosting and cloud provider IONOS.

ICE, based in the UK, Germany and Sweden, has processed trillions of online music uses from music streaming services and paid over €2.3 billion back to rights-holders since March 2016.

Its copyright database holds over 45 million musical works, while the ICE Core represents over 330,000 rights-holders. 

“From the start I was attracted to this unique opportunity to help evolve ICE for the future,” said Fichtner. “A key part of this exciting mission is the strategic capability to work efficiently with huge amounts of data – be it copyright or DSP usage. 

“Clearly, the best IT foundation to support a scalable 24/7 system has a cloud-based infrastructure and with over 15 years’ experience in building cloud-based solutions, I am really looking forward to applying this experience to create a very strong technology foundation for the future of ICE.”

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Peter de Mönnink, CEO, said: “Finding the right CTO for an organisation like ICE, is a strategic appointment since we match unrivalled expertise in musical copyright to technology. 

“In a dynamic and fast-moving industry, we need to continue to deliver today whilst imagining and realising what tomorrow could look like.

“I’m delighted to bring Govinda on-board as part of my leadership team. It’s by having a passionate team, who bring the skills and expertise to an already purpose-driven organisation, we can achieve unique things together.”