Music Royalty Management Software
Watch our series about music royalty management.
The video series, linked above, covers the same topics in a different format. These articles follow video episodes. However, they are more focused on explaining the logic behind the process explained in the videos, and how it is implemented in software. Each article begins with a link to the related video.
We sell software. And, ultimately, we would like to sell That Green Thing to you. However, for a small music company, any software is expensive, and That Green Thing might be too expensive. So, for the first 5 videos and articles (including this one), we explain how royalty management can be done using only free tools, DMP and Libre Office Calc.
In later episodes, we start using That Green Thing when free software is not enough. Although it has some advanced features for royalty management, most of our clients do not use them. Because royalty management is a part of a larger process, they need That Green Thing for other reasons, most notably its support for administration and sub-publishing.
Music inspires, metadata collects
Royalty management is the last step in a larger process, one that starts with delivering metadata. It is not the music that collects, it is the metadata. When metadata delivery is done correctly, as bi-directional process, royalty management can be simple and fast.
It should not include manual matching. And it should not include actual accounting. Instead, it should prepare data for accountants, who can then use any standard accounting software. This may not be what you are used to, and questions like "What about outgoing royalty statements?" may come to mind. We'll address them in due course.
It must be noted here that there is no difference between Music (Publishing) Catalogue Software, Music (Publishing) Administration Software, Music (Publishing) Royalty (Management) Software, etc. All these names, and many more, can be applied both to DMP and That Green Thing.