Tracking PRO payout for individual tracks

[Paolo]

Greetings,

I have a question for those composers who have shared knowing how much one of their tracks has earned them in backend PRo payment.

It seems time-consuming to use the PRO’s quarterly royalty statement (ie: BMI’s excel speadsheet), alphabetizing song titles and adding all the payouts for each title.

And as the my PRO’s (BMI) quarterly royalty statements continues to grow, my current method of eye-balling and ball-parking a track’s success in earnings is getting more challenging.

What other methods are you using to figure-out backend earnings for individual cues?

Thanks,
Paolo

[Paolo]

bump

[Alan]

Paolo,
I thought the same thing when I got to about 30-40 tracks so I made a spreadsheet for my library. I was a big investment of time to begin with, but now it’s easy. When I finish a track I just plug it in to the spreadsheet.
Every track has a sheet with:
Title, date started, date completed, bpm, key, versions/alts, date submitted to each library, # of licenses per version/library, PRO payouts, RF sales count and payout, hyperlink to file location, hyperlink to metadata Word document, hyperlinks to Tunesat recordings of placements, TV/film placements list …..

Also
-master track list with links to each track
-master library list
-broadcast placement list with placement date, publisher and Tunesat link
-PRO cue sheet list

I update RF sales and licenses as they come in and reconcile each PRO statement as I would a checkbook.

The statistical information is very useful. I can see at a glance how much each track has earned and from what market. It has taught me what genres of MY stuff gets placed on TV and what sells on the RF market. It also separates my memory/opinion (that favorite track that makes nothing) from fact.

[Paolo]

Alan,

Thank you for taking the time to post such a detailed answer. This is very helpful and I appreciate it!

Alan, are you using your PRO’s excel quarterly statement then summing/adding the payouts in all the rows belonging to one song, and then repeating the process for each song? Or are you automating this?

Also, how long does it take for you to 1) reconcile your PRO statement and 2) enter the info for a new track.

Thanks!

[Alan]

are you using your PRO’s excel quarterly statement then summing/adding the payouts in all the rows belonging to one song, and then repeating the process for each song? Or are you automating this?

Yes, exactly that, but more detailed. I will sum my income per placement too. It is a bit tedious but I can quickly see how much I have made from each placement.

how long does it take for you to 1) reconcile your PRO statement and 2) enter the info for a new track.

1) A 30-40 page ASCAP domestic statement may take a full day or more, but the statistical information is worth it to me
2) 10 to 15 minutes for a new track. I spend 10-15 minutes daily to update the workbook for new RF sales and broadcast placements.

PM me if you want me to send you a sample workbook to play around with.

[Paolo]

thanks again Alan and for you PM offer. I’ll take you up on that next time I subscribe (I find taking breaks in subscribing helps me to focus on music production)

[Author]

Posts