OMI was launched on June 13, 2016, by Berklee College of Music's Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship (ICE) in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab's Digital Currency Initiative.
[1][2][3] OMI has stated that its goal is to establish a decentralized global platform using an open source framework to ensure that royalties will be directly administered to music rights holders, creators and artists.
Operational, strategic, and technical guidance for OMI will be provided by design and consulting firm IDEO and Context Labs.
[7] Forbes writer Nelson Granados commented that "it looks like finally, the right group is coalescing to fix the music industry’s digital value chain" and noted, "coordinating powerful players like the top music labels will be no easy task, and disagreements are bound to arise.
[3] Independent cellist and composer Zoe Keating commented in the Boston Globe that OMI could facilitate payment for smaller projects and encourage collaboration among artists, adding that “the lack of a public authoritative record of creation and ownership keeps coming down as one of the things that stops innovation in licensing from occurring.