Korrect is a state of the art integrated music royalty system that reaches far beyond producing music royalty statements on a quarterly/six monthly basis. The Korrect strategy provides you with a central store for your data so that any accounting, contractual, distribution or website function can interact securely with your stored information. [Read more...]
Royalty Zone for Rights Licensors
September 3, 2010 By
RoyaltyZone (www.royaltyzone.com) is a new online royalty reporting & payment tracking service that saves you time & maximizes your licensing revenue. Easy to use & completely configurable, RoyaltyZone lets you enforce the terms of your license agreements: [Read more...]
Cleopatra Records selects Counterpoint Systems
September 2, 2010 By
CANNES—Indie label Cleopatra Records has chosen to implement Counterpoint Systems’ Maestro Relationship Management (MRM) software to provide its clients with access to royalty statements online. Used in conjunction with Counterpoint Systems’ royalties processing application Record Maestro, CRM will allow music publishers and other Cleopatra clients to instantly view royalty and sales data, summary reports, financial balances, label copy and other vital information. MRM is a boon to transparency and efficiency in royalties processing. [Read more...]
Ballon Media Selects Saas Version of Klopotek
September 2, 2010 By
It allows Ballon Media to access Klopotek’s software functionality without having to care about technical issues or pre-investing into a software replacement project. Klopotek’s SaaS solution is completely pre-configured based on best practice business processes: this enables Ballon Media to directly use the system after a short set-up period and compact user training.
Ballon Media will use Klopotek’s system to manage all processes in the areas of
- Title Management & Product Marketing
- Editorial & Production
- Contracts, Rights & Royalties
- Customer Marketing
Alexis Dragonetti, managing director of Ballon Media, states: ‘Ballon Media is a young company that is the result of a merger of two publishing houses that were respectively editing children books and comic books. The merger and the development of both businesses create new organizational challenges. In parallel with the traditional book business we also face growing licensing activities and have projects in the audiovisual field. Ballon Media will be therefore a crucible of multimedia projects in the future.
To keep up with our growth and the broadening of our activities, we were looking for a tool to support the several business processes. After a thorough selection process we have chosen the Klopotek SaaS system as this solution not only covers all our current needs in one single system but also supports us in defining new future business models.
We are extremely confident that the expertise Klopotek and its project team offers, will help us ensure the optimization of our present and future business processes. Since the Klopotek solution is in use by many small, medium and large publishers, we see this as a strategic choice in our business development.’
Easy Royalties Update 3.8.27
September 2, 2010 By
The latest update to the Easy Royalties software adds 5 new features;
- Summary of Statements Printed
- Summary of Statements for Authors or Agents that receive multiple statements
- Support for a marketing budget clause in the royalty contract
- Option to print marketing results on the royalty statement
- Renewal history tab that shows a history of renewals for a contract. [Read more...]
Karen Tiesling joins Media Services Group
September 2, 2010 By
Media Services Group (MSGL) is pleased to welcome Karen R. Tiesling as Product Manager for the Élan Book software system. Karen brings more than 20 years of expertise designing, developing and implementing software solutions for publishing companies – and another 10 years of experience working in the publishing industry. [Read more...]
Royalty Metrics
September 1, 2010 By
Can you name the metrics that every royalty manager should know?
They are;
- Royalties payable in total and by period
- Royalties advance payments owed
- Unearned royalties
- Reserve for returns
- Royalty expense in dollars and as a percentage of sales
- Number of royalty contracts, authors and products
- Number of active royalty products with no contract entered in the system
A royalty manager is expected to know these numbers and to be able to summarize them during management meetings. A typical summary might be;
“Our royalties payable totals $800,000 of which $350,000 is due and payable by August 31st and $450,00 is payable by March 30th of next year. We have no past due royalties. Our unpaid royalty advances total $50,000, of which we expect to pay $30,000 out in the next three months. Royalty expense for the year to date is 11% of sales, this is an increase over the 10% rate we paid during the same period last year. We are managing 400 royalty contracts signed with 300 authors for 1,200 active products. A royalty contract has been entered for every active product in our system.”
This summary tells management; and the CFO, how much cash is needed to pay contractual obligations. It also tells them when these funds are needed for royalties payable and contracted royalty advances.
The last sentence; “A royalty contract has been entered for every active product in our system”, confirms that the royalty expense is not understated because a royalty contract for a new product had not been created.
AnyBook Royalty Software
September 1, 2010 By
A small publisher with 1 to 25 titles should look at AnyBook, a shareware solution that handles sales, inventory, marketing and royalties for book publishers.
Pricing for this software ranges from $269 for version III to $649 for version V
The royalty functionality of AnyBook is summarized in the chart below. [Read more...]
Separate Unearned Royalties from Royalties Payable
September 1, 2010 By
Do you lump unearned royalties in with your royalties payable? If so, you are not following generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).
According to GAAP unearned royalties (an asset) should not be combined with royalties payable (a liability) on the balance sheet.
Unearned royalties are an asset. They occur when you have overpaid royalties when returns for a period exceeds the periods sales – thus creating a negative royalty expense.
Royalties payable are a liability that you need to payout in a defined period of time. If you lump them together you understate your payables and give management a false impression as to what the true liability.
Example – the correct method
1. Asset: Unearned Royalties $500, Liabilities: Royalties Payables $1,500
Example – the incorrect method
2. Liabilities: Royalties Payable $1,000 ($1,500 credit plus $500 asset)
When evaluating royalty software ask if the software seperates unearned royalties from royalties payable. So do and some don’t. If they don’t ask the vendor how to obtain the balances for each account. Your accounting staff will need to know this if they want to pass an audit without an adjusting entry from the auditor.
Royalty Backup Drive Recommendation
September 1, 2010 By
ioSafe USB drives are a cost effective way to protect your royalty data. These drives are used by organizations such as the USA Navy, NASA, McDonalds, and Oracle. These drives are affordable – prices start at $250 for a 1TB HD with a 3 year warranty. With a weight of 15 pounds these drives are less likely to be stolen.
When used with an online backup service this drive can serve as an effective part of your data protection strategy.
Fireproof — protects data from loss up to 1550°F for 1/2 hour
Waterproof — protects data from loss up to 10ft for 72 hours
Data Recovery Service – Up to $2500 for forensic recovery w/ Advanced Replacement
eSATA/USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 connectivity
Windows Server, Linux, Mac and PC Compatible
Capacities from 1TB to 2TB