Delayed royalty payments are highly disadvantageous for artists’ income in the rapidly changing digital world. The ageing payment method for artists, where they sometimes get paid after a couple of months or once a year, needs to be updated. Faster pay is increasingly required today with real-time data and digital payment systems.
The most formidable challenge to royalty distribution is the time it takes to check data on various platforms. Every genre of streaming service, radio station, or live show will generate enough data for tracking and checking with subsequent issues to correct parties with rights ownership. Such processes tend to be extremely slow and, sometimes, marred with error.
In the traditional revenue-sharing system, many intermediaries take a portion of the money before it reaches the artist. By the time the artist gets their payment, many of the earnings have already been taken by admin fees, publisher royalties, and record label advances. This not only lowers the amount the artist finally receives but also causes delays in getting paid.
