ServicesYour back office.
Run by ours.
Royalty accounting, financial management, reporting and controlling — handled end to end by the people who build the software, on the software itself. You keep the catalogue and the artists; we keep the deadlines. And when the catalogue itself is bought or sold, we value it, take it to market and run the deal.
“Our superpower? We are humans among robots.”
Four departments.
None of them yours.
Take one of them or take all four. Whichever you take, it is run on melino by the people who built it — and the licence for the software it runs on comes with the engagement.
Liane Willinghöfer
Head of Royalty Accounting
Royalty Accounting
Statements out, on the date you promised
We run the royalty run
Contracts digitised down to the rates, splits, advances and recoupment rules, and partner master data kept current. Sales and licence reports collected, validated and processed in whatever format they arrive in.
Statements prepared, reviewed and sent on schedule every period, read by your artists in the portal — and the questions that come back, audits included, answered by us.
Financial Management
Paid on time, taxed correctly
And then the money actually moves
Payment runs with minimum-payout thresholds and multi-currency transfers. Withholding tax calculated, declared and filed, with certificates issued to your licensors.
Advances and recoupment tracked, payables reconciled against bank and ledger, and the bookings exported to DATEV, SAP or whatever you close your books in.
Reporting
Delivered, not requested
The numbers arrive rather than being asked for
Power BI dashboards programmed for the questions your team actually asks, with full access to the data sources the ETL leaves behind — so nothing you are shown is a figure you have to take on trust.
Excel on demand when someone needs the line-by-line, and a summary in your inbox every week whether or not anyone asked.
Nocturne LP
Controlling
Plan against actual, all year
You hear about it while it can still be fixed
Budgets, forecasts and plan against actual at contract, partner and product level, so a release drifting off budget is flagged, not found at year end.
Accruals and provisions, margin per release, artist and catalogue, and the figures ready for month-end, year-end and your auditors.
What you are
actually handing over.
The whole scope, group by group. Take a group, take several, or take all five — engagements are quoted on what they involve, so nothing here is a tier you have to buy past.
Royalty Accounting
Everything between a signed licence and a statement your artist can read.
- Contract setup — licence agreements digitised with every royalty rate, split, advance and recoupment rule
- Partner setup and master data management, including bank details, tax data and ongoing maintenance
- Collection, validation and processing of incoming sales and third-party licence reports, in any format and by any delivery channel
- Capture of recoupable costs and other revenue streams, for onward billing or internal controlling
- Preparation, review and on-schedule dispatch of outgoing royalty statements for every accounting period
- Self-service access to statements and earnings in the Artist Portal, with clear visual breakdowns
- Direct communication with licensors, from statement queries through to audit requests
Financial Management
The payment leaves, the tax is filed, and the books agree with the bank.
- Execution of licensor payments, including payment runs, minimum-payout thresholds and multi-currency transfers
- Withholding tax handling — calculation, declaration and filing with the tax authorities
- Issuance of tax certificates for licensors, plus support with double-taxation relief and exemption certificates
- Advance and recoupment tracking, with unrecouped balances visible at any time
- Reconciliation of royalty payables against bank and accounting records
- Handling of payment queries, returned transfers and updated payee details
- Export of booking data to your accounting system or ERP — DATEV, SAP or otherwise
Reporting
The same figures, in the same shape, on a date you can put a meeting on.
- Microsoft Power BI, with reports programmed for the questions your team actually asks
- Full access to the data sources the ETL processes leave behind
- Excel reports on demand
- A summary in your inbox every week
Controlling
What was budgeted, what was spent, and what it means for the margin.
- Budget planning and forecasting of royalty and licence expenses
- Plan/actual comparisons with variance analysis at contract, partner and product level
- Accruals and provisions for outstanding royalty obligations
- Margin and profitability analysis per release, per artist and per catalogue
- Preparation of figures for month-end and year-end closing, and for auditors
Catalogue M&A
Buying or selling music rights, from the first valuation to the signed closing.
- Valuation of master and publishing catalogues for sellers and buyers, on earnings multiples and discounted cash flow, with the sensitivities shown
- Earnings analysis by income source, territory, platform and title, including decay curves, concentration risk and a forecast
- Rights and chain-of-title review — ownership, splits, reversion and termination rights, and anything the catalogue is encumbered with
- Professional valuation reports, teasers and information memoranda, written to be put in front of investors
- Data room preparation: statements, contracts and reports collected, cleaned and reconciled before a buyer asks for them
- Sell-side mandates — positioning, pricing guidance and the confidential approach to buyers
- Buy-side mandates — sourcing, screening, due diligence and bid support
- Access to melino's own network of buyers, to whom suitable catalogues are offered directly
- Running the deal process: NDAs, bidder management, offers, negotiation support and the path from term sheet to closing, alongside your legal counsel
- Onboarding of the sold or acquired catalogue into royalty accounting after closing, so the first statement does not wait on the handover
The software comes with it
A managed engagement runs on melino, and the licence for whichever apps it needs is in the fee rather than bought beside it. The two only work together, so we do not charge for them twice.
The migration is ours to do
Catalogue, contracts, balances and statement history are brought across from whatever you are on now — legacy systems and competing ones alike — and reconciled against your last closed period before the first run goes out.
Quoted per engagement
There is no tier to buy past. Royalty accounting runs at about a quarter on top of the software plan it sits on; anything beyond it is priced on what it actually involves.
Tell us what you run
Catalogue size, how many licensors you account to, and which of the five groups you would hand over first. We will come back with a real number.