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No. 18Financial Terms
Also called royalty statements, royalty accounting, payment schedule
How often the label calculates and pays royalties, and how long they have after each period to actually pay.
Watch closely
Long payment delays reduce effective cash flow for artists, especially in the early stages of a deal.
Accounting periods define how often the label tallies your royalties and issues a statement. Semi-annual (twice a year) is standard, but labels often have 60–90 days after the accounting period closes to actually pay. This means royalties earned in January might not arrive until October.
In an industry with thin margins for developing artists, delayed accounting compounds cash flow problems. The label is effectively holding your money interest-free for up to 9 months from when it was earned.
The same clause is drafted three ways. These are the positions we see, worst first, so you can tell at a glance which one is in front of you.
The drafting language and the negotiation moves for this clause are part of the workspace.
You have read what the clause means and where the risk sits. The rest is the side-by-side of how it reads when it is against you and when it is not, plus the specific moves that get it there.