Notes.fm Launches to Uncover Unclaimed ‘Black Box’ Royalties

Stem Co-Founder Tim Luckow has officially launched his new venture, Notes.fm, a platform designed to solve the issue of unclaimed ‘black box’ royalties.

How it works:

• Notes.fm seeks to connect the fragmented worlds of recordings, publishing, and performance rights in a single, easy-to-use workflow.

• It requires only artist name and musician name to start scanning streaming services, collection societies, and registries like the MLC to identify missing royalties.

• It will also fix issues and directly claim the royalties that result from those corrections, while ensuring future income flows correctly.

Early wins:

• As per the press release, over the course of Notes.fm’s year-long private beta the platform identified over $10 million in missing or unclaimed royalties from songs representing more than 50 billion streams.

• The beta includes over 400 artists of every size, from established stars such as Mt. Joy, James Blake and girl in red to legacy estates like Howlin’ Wolf and emerging artists like Adam Melchor and Anna Wise.

• Notes.fm claims to have uncovered an average of $15,500 in unclaimed royalties per artist to date, taking money out of the so-called black box and giving it to the artists.

• As per the company's release, Mt. Joy has collected six figures in royalties directly across fixed historical registrations and new registrations.

The launch:

• Notes.fm is now open to the public.

• It foregoes participation in artist’s royalties, opting for a subscription model.

• Artists can sign up to plans beginning at $5 a month.

What they said:

• Tim Luckow, CEO and Co-Founder of Notes.fm: “When it comes to music royalties, complexity is the enemy. For over a century, musicians have struggled to get paid because of disconnected systems that were not designed for the digital streaming era. Notes.fm fixes that, handling the complex work in the background so artists can focus on the music. Every musician deserves every dollar they’ve earned, and we’re here to make sure that happens.”