Today (Aug. 24), Good Folk Music Management founder Jordan Mattison and New York-based digital agency Coalesce announced the wide release of its new free royalty calculator Good Splits, which aims to simplify the calculation and distribution of song royalties for artists and creators.
The goal, according to its creators, is simplicity: using sales and streaming data that is supplied by distributors, artists and creators can upload the data into Good Splits, input the information as to who gets what splits for each song, and calculate the royalties generated and owed, helping to clarify a process that is often murky and complicated.
"The music industry has a terrible history of serving the artist last. Good Splits was built to help artists do their royalty accounting in a super accessible way -- and I hope it’s one step toward a more equitable music business," Mattison said in a statement to Billboard. "Not only does it save time, it actually helps more artists get paid what they’re owed, which in turn actually lets them plan for the future -- something musicians feel is often out of their reach."
Many established artists will have this process covered by a business manager or label, but Good Splits is geared towards independent creators who often can’t necessarily afford to dish out a cut of revenue to others to handle the often-complicated math that goes along with royalty calculation. Some distributors will offer royalty splits and payments for a small fee, or will simply pay royalties from a DSP to the uploader and pass the splits calculation on to that person’s team.
"We saw a problem in the music business and knew that some smart strategy, simple tech and savvy design could help fill the gap in a real, tangible way," Coalesce partner/strategist Tucker Margulies said in a statement to Billboard. "It shouldn't take crazy technology to be able to know how much a song has made or how much you owe a collaborator."