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The Music Royalty Migration Guide
A practical framework for moving your royalty operations — whether you’re starting from scratch, leaving spreadsheets behind, or switching platforms.
Most companies planning a migration fall into one of three situations:
Starting from scratch
- No prior royalty system
- Data organization varies widely
- Fewer legacy assumptions to unwind
From Spreadsheets
- Formula-driven Excel or Sheets
- Manual calculations, may lack documentation
- Logic lives in the spreadsheet architect’s head
From another platform
- Data is likely well organized
- A royalty professional has often managed it
- Translation takes care where terminology differs
It’s worth noting: spreadsheet migrations are often less complex than people expect. The data tends to be messier, but it hasn’t been shaped by another system’s internal logic. There’s a cleanup problem to solve, not a translation problem. Migrations from another platform usually start from cleaner data, but require carefully unpacking what that platform’s terminology and deal types actually mean underneath the hood.
Every situation comes with its own advantages, its own time commitments, and its own open questions. Use whichever parts of this guide are useful to you.
The full-stack approach to royalty migration.
Jump to the end of this guide to see how Tone cuts the standard migration timeline down from months to weeks.
89%
less time spent on sales matching with Tone’s auto-match
4-12 wk
3 mo
Steps Every Migration Should Follow
Regardless of where you’re coming from or where you’re headed, your underlying process should be the same.
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01 - Collect your data
Gather everything in the migration checklist (included below) -
02 - Audit what you have
Confirm the data represents your complete catalog and your complete roster — including releases or signings that never made it into your old system. -
03 - Loop in your roster
Let your artists and payees know that you're moving to a new royalty platform and set expectations about timing — when they should expect their next statement, how they'll receive it (via email, logging into a royalty portal, etc), and whether it might land a little differently than usual while you work through the transition. A short heads-up early on prevents confused or anxious messages later, and it's a courtesy your roster will remember. -
04 - Translate platform-specific logic
If you're moving from another royalty platform, identify exactly what its terminology and deal-type classifications mean mathematically, so you can carry that logic into your new system. Many systems define the same terms differently. Get clear on the expected math before you touch the new system — given a specific sale amount, what should the label earn, what should the artist earn, and what should any collaborators earn? -
05 - Learn the new system
Understand exactly how it handles your specific use cases. A platform with a genuinely knowledgeable support team, ideally one that also understands the system you're leaving, makes this step far less painful. It's also worth treating this as a chance to simplify: newer platforms often support things your old one didn't, like catalog groups or escalations. -
06 - Build a formal mapping plan
Document precisely how each piece of your data will map into the new system before you start moving anything. -
07 - Migrate the data and generate your first period
Move the data in, then run and review your first royalty period. Expect to find issues — figures that don't quite match your expectations, configurations that need adjusting. That's normal. -
08 - Run a parallel period, if you can
If you're moving from another system, run the same dataset through both platforms side by side. Getting the two to match to the penny may be difficult, but a close match confirms both are calculating the same way given the same sales and costs. You don't need to pause royalty processing to do this — most companies keep running periods in their current system while building and validating the new one, and only fully transition once they're confident in the results. -
09 - Iterate
Go back to the data and configuration, re-run the period, and repeat until the results match what you expect. -
10 - Finalize and distribute
Once results are correct, finalize the period and send statements to your artists.
Migration Data Checklist
Having your data organized up front is the single biggest lever you have over how smoothly the rest of the process goes. Check items off as you collect them.
SALES STATEMENTS
All statements from every distributor and income source
- Decide your scope: some companies migrate their complete sales history from day one, which is useful for long-term analytics but takes longer to organize and reconcile. Others only bring in the data needed to run future periods — faster, but with less historical visibility in the new system. Because migrating everything can be a big job, starting with just what you need and backfilling later can strike the right balance.
- Compile your list of sales sources and their reporting frequency. Each period you’ll want to make sure you received your statements and reconcile to the payments received.
- Know whether any of your sources split their reporting into multiple files — for example, artist-specific statements — so you know the full set you’re working with.
- If you work with international distributors that report in a currency other than your home currency, note which currencies they use — you’ll need to know how your new platform handles the conversion.
If migrating from another royalty platform, export any outstanding unmapped or unreported sales lines (sales that were not reported on royalty statements in your previous system and need to be carried over)
CATALOG METADATA
- ISRCs, UPCs, internal product codes, and any other identifiers needed to map sales to your entire catalog accurately
- Track metadata — track titles, versions, artists, ISRCs, track duration, etc.
- Release metadata and tracklists — release titles, artists, UPCs/EANs, catalog numbers, release dates, formats (vinyl, CD, digital album, single, etc.), and complete tracklists. Preserve the relationships between tracks and releases, especially when a track appears on multiple releases.
PAYEE INFORMATION
- Names and contact information for every payee (if applicable)
- Banking information for every payee (if applicable)
- A W-9 (or W-8 for international payees) on file for every payee you'll be paying through the new system, if you don't have these already
CONTRACTS & DEAL TERMS
The exact terms that determine how sales are allocated to each payee — splits, recoupment structures, deductions, escalations, associated catalog, cross-contract relationships, etc.
- This may exist as long-form contract PDFs, or, if you’re fortunate, as deal summaries your legal team has already prepared. Either format works, but you need it to be complete.
- If you’re migrating from another royalty system, you may be able to export your contract terms directly. If your contracts have escalations, document the current thresholds and effective rates. Carefully document any unreleased reserves, if applicable. Preserve any links between your tracks/releases and existing contracts.
COSTS & EXPENSES
Anything recoupable by an artist or payee — marketing spend, recording costs, travel expenses, advances, etc.
- For each, you’ll want to know the cost description, transaction date, amount, invoice number (if applicable), and note the artist, track, or release each cost applies to.
MECHANICAL LICENSES (IF APPLICABLE)
Mechanical licenses, publisher information, and songwriter information, if your destination platform supports processing mechanical royalties
- Preserve songwriter and publisher names and relationships, along with the compositions they control, the associated tracks and releases, applicable rates, and license numbers. Include CAE/IPI numbers and PRO information where available.
- Make sure you have accurate track durations, which can determine the applicable statutory rate. If you’re migrating from another royalty system, custom rates or provisions that affect calculations, such as controlled compositions, may be stored at the track or release level.
OPENING BALANCES
The closing balance of your last royalty period, along with any payments made, for every contract.
- For continuity, we recommend using the latest statement closing balance as the opening balance, then posting the associated payment so that it appears on the first batch of statements rendered in your new system.
- If this is an inception-to-date migration with no prior period balances, the opening balance will be zero in your new system.
ROYALTY STATEMENTS
- While not specifically required for a data migration, decide how you'll archive historical statements from your old system — most platforms offer some export functionality for this
What can impact your timeline
Traditionally, a full royalty migration is expected to take six months or more. A few things drive how long any given migration actually takes.
Data quality
Clean metadata, complete payee records, and consistent deal documentation move noticeably faster than messy or incomplete data.
Catalog & roster size
A young label with a handful of artists and releases will move much faster than an established company with thousands of payees
Contract complexity
Consistent, standardized deal terms are far easier to migrate than highly bespoke terms that vary artist by artist.
Expert support
Whether you have someone who’s navigated your specific migration scenario before makes an outsized difference. Migrations that lean on real expertise tend to move faster simply because issues get identified and resolved correctly the first time, instead of through several rounds of trial and error.
Internal availability
Even with full support from your new platform’s team, someone on your side needs the bandwidth to answer questions as they come up. Most successful migrations are led by an experienced internal team member who knows what to look for as the migration proceeds. A lean team wearing many hats can succeed, but they will need to plan accordingly.
Your current system
The platform you’re moving to can add weeks to your timeline or cut steps out entirely. A platform built with tools that automate matching, surface errors immediately, and help you summarize your data will cut down on the manual work required.
How Tone approaches migrations
Tone follows the same fundamental process — but a few things about how we run it, and what our platform is built to do, change what it looks like in practice.
A dedicated migration expert
Companies migrating to Tone are paired with a dedicated migration expert — someone experienced in migrations to Tone generally, and, if you’re coming from another royalty platform, often deeply familiar with that specific system as well.
Migration support at Tone also works a little differently than most software implementations. Rather than locking clients into a fixed services contract, Tone offers a flexible menu of migration support options — you choose what you need, for as long as you need it. That might mean bringing in expert support specifically to get through the data migration, then operating independently once you’re live. Or it might mean leaning on that support for a defined stretch — getting through a busy processing window, onboarding new team members after turnover, or working through a large catalog acquisition — even after your migration is complete. The level of engagement is calibrated to your situation, not a predetermined package.
A real migration plan, not just a data dump
We build a migration plan with you, including documentation on exactly which exports you need from your legacy system, if applicable. We dig into your data directly to confirm we understand it. From there, we help you identify a subset of your data that can be fully migrated and turned into a completed period within the first three months — an early, tangible win you can use to get priority statements out the door — with milestones along the way.
Note: new labels or individual artists may not need to select a subset of data to migrate. Our team can help you determine if your catalog and roster are good candidates to be migrated as a single unit within three months. While the decision ultimately rests with you, our expert team will make recommendations about what to include in your priority period. Small initial periods are easier to validate and review, and help you build confidence and prove ROI in a shorter time frame.
While the decision ultimately rests with you, our expert team will make recommendations about what to include in your priority period. Small initial periods are easier to validate and review, and help you build confidence and prove ROI in a shorter time frame. Work on the rest of your migration continues after that, using your first period as a template. Our recommendations could include:
- A small parallel run — comparing statements generated with your existing solution for a single contract group or short royalty period.
- A time-limited period — for example, one quarter of royalties, instead of your entire inception to date catchup.
- A single group of related contracts — for example, one priority artist and their collaborators or producers.
- Your entire dataset — if the number of contracts and size of catalog being migrated is small enough.
TARGET TIMELINE WITH TONE
Spreadsheet migrations
4-12 wk
Legacy platform migrations
6-12 wk
At the twelve-week mark, you’re running your first priority period and getting statements into the hands of your payees.
Tone features that make migration faster.
AI-assisted Contract Review
If your legal team hasn’t produced deal summaries, Contract Analyzer reads your contract PDFs directly and identifies key terms, rates, and clauses, cutting down one of the slowest parts of the process.
Automatic contract checks
Once your deal terms are configured in Tone, Contract Check compares what’s set up against the original PDF and flags any mismatches before they ever reach a royalty calculation.
Automatic sales matching
Upload a sales statement from a given source once, and Tone automatically matches the structure of every subsequent upload from that same source. In internal testing, this has saved roughly 89% of the time spent on this step.
No templates
On many legacy platforms, you have to download a template, fill it out offline, upload it, and comb through a batch of errors before you upload again. In Tone, you can copy and paste directly from your existing spreadsheet and issues like duplicate ISRCs or missing metadata are flagged immediately. The rest of your data stays usable while you fix only the exceptions.
Automated catalog tools
If your catalog metadata isn’t fully organized, Tone’s import tools can pull release and track data. Tone can also build out catalog data directly from the sales statements you’ve already uploaded.
No payee financial data to collect
Tone has a dedicated payee support team that onboards every one of your payees directly. Don’t worry about gathering any banking or tax details — just an email address per payee, and we take it from there.