The Accounting Behind Music Royalties in the Streaming Era

Partner and Royalty Inspection, Contract Compliance, and Consulting Practice Leader Chris Hull was recently quoted in The Wall Street Journal regarding royalty accounting for artists during the streaming era (i.e., Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube).

His process includes retrieving streaming statements from digital service providers, downloading them into a database, and then creating a table of earnings or revenue by song. Royalty provisions are applied to that revenue to recalculate the royalties that are payable to the interested parties.

"Being attentive to where your artist is being exploited, or having their songs exploited, is going to make a difference in the kind of revenue that they generate," said Chris Hull.