Stem Has Made Recoupment Accounting Much Easier for Artists
Written by SOURCE on August 26, 2021
Since its launch in 2015, Stem has remained committed to empowering independent figures working within the music industry. The distribution and payments platform has provided clients with a wide range of tools that reduce the administrative burdens for both artists and smaller labels.
Today, the company continues that mission with the roll out of Recoup Rules—a feature that simplifies the royalty accounting process and ensures shareholders are properly compensated.
“Royalty accounting has been made to feel complex and burdensome,” said Milana Rabkin Lewis, CEO of Stem. “It scares most independent managers, artists and labels, to the point where they punt handling it so no one gets paid. Our goal was to demystify and streamline the accounting process. This is the latest step in our journey to modernize the music industry and give music business owners the tools, capital and technology to manage their operations more efficiently and on their own terms.”
Here’s a quick example of how the tool works: If a label or manager puts down $20,000 for a music project, they can create a Recoup Rule to track and recoup expenses. The feature will layout all the earnings from the music release and confirm when the $20,000 has been fulled recouped; any additional earnings will then be split among the artists, producers, and other shareholders.
The tool also allows clients to recoup across multiple releases; factor in additional earnings from physical sales, publishing, and more; provide monthly recoupment updates for all involved parties; control when royalties are paid out; and much more. It not only makes the accounting process much more seamless, but also significantly more transparent.
“As a manager, it’s painful to be on the receiving end of ambiguous reporting from most labels related to costs my producer and artist clients stand behind,” said music manager Tyler Henry, who works with everyone from PARTYNEXTDOOR, Wondagurl, HARV, and TikTok producer Carneyval. “Now that STURDY, a multi-hyphenate creative company, is in the process of launching our distribution arm, we need to keep track of recoupment – but it’s such a tedious and expensive process. Having this streamlined now with Stem is crucial for our growth and success as a company that values transparency.”
You can learn more about Stem and its services here.
