It’s true – our small team is ready to grow, and if you’ve somehow found this blog post and are in need of gainful employment, have we got a new careers page for you. Hiring for three positions to be exact: 🤠 an entry level Catalog Sales & Services position anyone can apply for 🧑💻… Continue reading We’re Hiring
Author: Hunter Giles
Royalty Sandbox: Simple Profit Share w/ Advance
Welcome to the very first edition of IC’s Royalty Sandbox, where we’ll be breaking down different royalty accounting scenarios and concepts, and giving you the tools + knowledge to tackle them yourselves. There’s no better place to start than this: the simplest, most common, and – in this royalty accountant’s personal opinion – most likely… Continue reading Royalty Sandbox: Simple Profit Share w/ Advance
Distributor splits tools: so close, yet so far
There are a lot of distributors out there – help us map them! – and some of them have the ability for users to divvy up royalties amongst collaborators. Around the IC office (discord), we call these “splits tools.” These tools can be super helpful! You can release a track or a whole record or… Continue reading Distributor splits tools: so close, yet so far
The 360 deal wasn’t wrong, it was oriented incorrectly
If you’re a creator, or work with creators, you might be familiar with something called the “360 deal.” These largely-maligned deals became a thing in the mid aughts, right as record royalties started taking a nosedive and everybody was scrambling to keep the money train rolling. They were supposedly pioneered by Paramore’s manager Jeff Hansen,… Continue reading The 360 deal wasn’t wrong, it was oriented incorrectly
True Royalty Stories: Rwanda’s Rev Share
Learned about a fascinating revenue share instance via ye olde 60 Minutes. Rwanda’s had a boom of eco-tourism lately, with an increasing number of people willing to pay $1500/person to hang out with the mountain gorillas native to their region. Hotels and services have popped up to round out the experience, with the total sector… Continue reading True Royalty Stories: Rwanda’s Rev Share
longevity, transparency and mobility
Cherie Hu’s recent Extended Play article “An overabundance of music NFT platforms — and scams” is well worth a read, diving deep on how some new startups in the space are engaging in increasingly shady behavior to try and stand out from the pack (or justify their VC cash). It ends with this sage bit… Continue reading longevity, transparency and mobility
True Royalty Stories
Real life tales of (in)famous royalty accounting Story #1: Kevin Smith vs. Miramax This started with me trying to run down a rumor I’d heard that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck weren’t paid any backend royalties for Good Will Hunting. Instead I found this juicy story from Kevin Smith’s recent press tour for a new documentary about… Continue reading True Royalty Stories
The Original Inspiration
I don’t remember how I found it or who sent it to me (probably Ben Goldberg at BaDaBing! Records), but I know it blew my mind apart immediately, and I kept thinking about it for days, weeks, months after. I highly doubt IC would exist without it. From the ~colorful~ opening to the spine-shivering final… Continue reading The Original Inspiration
The story of Infinite Catalog
It all started in 2009… I’d released a few things on my DIY label Infinite Best, and gotten hired by the great BaDaBing! Records in Brooklyn. One of my many jobs there was to do the royalty accounting using spreadsheets. (This is Hunter btw – I’m the co-founder of Infinite Catalog, along with Udbhav Gupta.… Continue reading The story of Infinite Catalog