E162 ‘The Future of Content Licensing’ with Contenseo’s Stephen Conmy

Today’s guest is Stephen Conmy, CEO and Founder at Contenseo. As content creators, publishers and copyright holders face increasing challenges when it comes to licensing their work, Contenseo are a game-changing solution aiming to simplify and streamline the content licensing process. In this podcast, Stephen discusses how this innovative platform is transforming the content licensing industry.

Stephen’s starts off the episode by sharing his journey to founding Contenseo, which began with his own frustrations while working in the publishing and Edtech industries. As someone who regularly licensed content, he often found the process cumbersome, time-consuming and overly reliant on paperwork. In one particular instance, licensing content from a large publisher became so challenging that he had to abandon the process altogether.

This experience sparked the idea for ‘License Finder’, a tool designed to make content licensing as transactional and straightforward as any other digital experience. His goal was to turn the complex, paper-heavy process into a user-friendly system that benefits both content creators and those looking to license their work.

License Finder is simple to work. If you find a piece of content online – be it an article, video or podcast – you can input the URL into License Finder. The system then contacts the copyright holder, notifying them of your interest in licensing their content. The entire process becomes automated, saving time and effort for both parties.

Stephen emphasises that Contenseo’s system is designed to accommodate all types of publishers and content holders, making it easier for them to manage licensing requests. The platform offers an intuitive dashboard where publishers can approve or decline licensing requests, review professional profiles of requesters, and ensure the right agreements are in place – all in one seamless process.

Stephen compares Contenseo’s platform to Shopify for content licensing, offering a transactional system that handles everything from license requests to payments. It even uses AI to ensure data accuracy and to maintain clean, updated databases of licensing agreements. This makes it easy for publishers to monetize their content efficiently and securely, without the need for extensive in-house teams or agencies.

For publishers using platforms like WordPress, Contenseo plans to introduce a plugin that will further streamline the process. With this plugin, website owners can easily install a “licensing department in a box” without needing coding expertise. This next step is aimed at expanding the platform’s reach to mid-tier and top publishers, particularly in the U.S. and U.K.

Stephen and Mark also touch on the broader implications of AI and new technologies in the content licensing world. With advancements such as Google’s NotebookLM model, which allows for automated podcast creation from written content. However, while these tools are innovative, they also raise questions about content ownership and licensing in the age of AI.

Contenseo aims to be at the forefront of these changes, ensuring that high-quality, evergreen content, particularly long-form, research-heavy articles, which can be easily licensed for reuse across industries. Stephen believes that these changes will open up new opportunities for publishers to monetize their work in ways they hadn’t previously considered.

As Contenseo continues to evolve, Stephen is excited about the platform’s potential to revolutionise content licensing. By simplifying and automating the process, he’s helping publishers and content creators tap into new revenue streams while addressing an industry-wide problem.

Concluding the conversation, host Mark praises Stephen’s hands-on, user-focused approach, noting that solving real-world challenges often leads to the most impactful innovations. With Contenseo, Stephen is doing just that: Creating a system that works for both publishers and content seekers in today’s digital-first world.