University of Westminster alumna Chantal Epp has won Music Week’s Women in Music Entrepreneur Award for her groundbreaking company ClicknClear, which is transforming how music is legally used in performance sports worldwide. Her innovation bridges the music and sports industries, ensuring fair pay for artists while giving athletes access to licensed tracks for their routines.
Chantal is the founder of ClicknClear, a specialist music rights technology and licensing company serving the performance sports industry. With many sports relying heavily on music, such as gymnastics and figure skating, ClicknClear bridges the gap between the music and sports worlds, ensuring athletes can use licensed tracks legally and avoid the risk of copyright infringement.
Every year, more than 150 million athletes in choreographed sports generate demand for over a billion licences. Historically, that demand went unmet, leaving athletes routinely exposed to copyright infringement risks. ClicknClear’s system not only resolved this but also unlocked a new revenue stream for the sector.
At the Paris Summer Olympics, the International Olympic Committee deployed ClicknClear’s License Verification System (LVS), and for the first time at this scale, unlicensed music was converted into licensed use at the point of performance, a breakthrough that instantly positioned ClicknClear as the global standard for music licensing in sport.
Speaking to Music Week she said: “In May 2016, I walked into work one day and was told, ‘the company has gone into administration, you no longer have a job’. I was devastated, because I really loved that company and the mission, streamlining licensing for digital media and YouTube creators. That same week, cheerleading announced that there had been a lawsuit from Sony Music, and we were no longer allowed to use commercial music unless it was licensed. And I thought, ‘no one knows how to do that’. Even in my music production company, I couldn’t get a licence that covered the rights I needed. I realised: I don’t want to walk into work one day and be told I don’t have a job. I’ve always wanted to own my own company. I had the experience from licensing, the relationships with rights holders and the perspective of being a two-time world champion cheerleader. I knew I could solve this. So, I spent a year writing a business plan, and in January 2017 I got a government-backed startup loan to get legal agreements drafted. That was the start of ClicknClear.”
About the award he said: “I am truly honoured to receive the Music Week Women In Music Entrepreneur Award for recognition of my work in building ClicknClear. We are so grateful to our record label and publishing partners for supporting us in the journey towards streamlining licensing across sports and building new revenue opportunities for artists and writers. To get recognition from the industry on top of their support gives the ClicknClear team and I great confidence in and validation for what we are doing, and even more motivation to keep innovating and conducting ourselves in the right way for our customers and music rightsholders.”
Dr Lucy Harrison, Assistant Head of the School of Arts, added: “This award is hugely well deserved in recognition of Chantal’s entrepreneurial skill, technical knowledge and passion. She’s found a practical and ethical way to ensure that artists get paid while creating a system that is easy to use for athletes. It’s fantastic to see an alumna using her expertise in music combined with her background and experience in cheer to create something truly innovative. The whole music team cannot wait to see what else Chantal achieves!”
Chantal’s pioneering idea directly contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth and 10: Reduced Inequalities. Since 2019, the University of Westminster has used the SDGs holistically to frame strategic decisions to help students and colleagues fulfil their potential and contribute to a more sustainable, equitable and healthier society.
Find out more about Music courses at the University of Westminster.
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