As you are no doubt aware, we have been having some issues with payments or reporting not being received from stores each month by the time we send out distribution statements.
Our policy has always been that we will pay to our clients everything that has been paid to us by the cut off time of 9am on the first Monday of each month. If the stores always report and pay on time this system works. However, in the case of the Monday falling on the 1st of the month, delayed payments, staff absence or any other delays, payments from the store may not be included, as was the case with Beatport and Spotify this month.
We have thought long and hard about the best way to deal with this and have decided to change our policy as follows:
Distribution statements will now be sent within 7 days of the start of each month. We will do our best to pick the best date to a) get you the payment as soon as possible and b) include as many stores in the report as possible, with the priority stores being iTunes / Apple Music, Spotify, Beatport and YouTube.
Due to the inconvenience a lot of you have encountered this month, we will be sending out an additional statement today containing your Beatport payment. We are still in contact with Spotify regarding the February reporting and have been advised that it should be received by the end of the month. We will send out an additional statement if it arrives by the 26th of May, otherwise it will be included in next month’s distribution statements.
We have also had a large number of labels contact us this month in regards to mechanical deductions. Please note that many stores withhold mechanical royalties based upon the location of the customer. For example, Beatport withhold 10% of the total sale price on sales made to non-US customers. This deduction is made before the store’s own deductions and prior to any deductions by ourselves. Unfortunately we are unable to present this information to labels within the sales estimates as the stores do not provide us adequate information to do so.
Thanks for your understanding on this issue, if you have any questions or comments please reach out to us at support@label-engine.com.