Royalty accounting, in plain English
The terms that come up across catalogs, contracts, income, and statements — defined clearly, the way Qlero handles them.
- Advance Accounting
- An upfront payment to an artist or rights holder, recouped against their future royalty earnings before any further payments are made.
- Catalog Data & standards
- The full collection of releases, recordings, and works a rights holder owns or administers.
- Cross-collateralization Accounting
- Recouping costs or advances across multiple releases, contracts, or income types rather than treating each in isolation.
- CWR Data & standards
- Common Works Registration — the standard format for registering compositions with collection societies.
- DDEX Data & standards
- A family of standards for exchanging music supply-chain data, including sales and usage reports.
- DSP Data & standards
- Digital Service Provider — a streaming or download platform such as Spotify or Apple Music.
- Gross receipts Accounting
- Total income from a source before any deductions or fees.
- ISRC Data & standards
- International Standard Recording Code — the unique identifier for a specific sound recording.
- ISWC Data & standards
- International Standard Musical Work Code — the unique identifier for a musical composition.
- Master rights Rights
- Ownership of a specific sound recording (the master), as opposed to the underlying composition.
- Mechanical royalties Royalties
- Royalties generated when a composition is reproduced — via streams, downloads, or physical copies.
- Neighbouring rights Royalties
- Royalties for the use of a sound recording, due to performers and producers — distinct from the composition.
- Net receipts Accounting
- Income remaining after deductions such as distribution fees, before royalty splits are applied.
- Payee Royalties
- A person or entity entitled to receive royalty payments.
- Performance royalties Royalties
- Royalties due when a work is performed or communicated publicly, including broadcast and streaming.
- Publishing rights Rights
- Ownership of the underlying musical composition — the lyrics and melody — as opposed to the recording.
- Reconciliation Accounting
- Matching incoming sales and usage data to your catalog and contracts so every figure ties back to a source.
- Recoupment Accounting
- The process of recovering advances and recoupable costs out of an artist's royalties before the artist is paid through.
- Reporting cycle Accounting
- The end-to-end run that turns a period's ingested sales into calculated royalties and published statements.
- Self-billing Accounting
- An arrangement where the paying party generates the invoice on the payee's behalf, common in royalty payouts.
- Split Royalties
- How royalties are divided between rights holders, expressed as percentages of a defined income base.
- Statement ledger Accounting
- A running, line-by-line record of a payee's balance, earnings, costs, and payments over time.
- Statement period Accounting
- The reporting window (e.g. monthly or quarterly) for which royalties are calculated and statements are produced.
- Sub-publishing Rights
- A local publisher administering and collecting on rights in a foreign territory on the original publisher's behalf.
- Suspense Accounting
- Income that can't yet be matched to a release or contract, held for review and resolution before it's reported.
- Sync licensing Rights
- Licensing music for use alongside visual media such as film, TV, advertising, and games.
- Territory Rights
- A geographic region used to scope rights, deals, and reporting (e.g. Worldwide, or a single country).
- Withholding tax Accounting
- Tax deducted at source on cross-border royalty payments, often reclaimable under tax treaties.
