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Issue #6 • August 3, 2026
Three Shifts That Decide What You Get Paid
Streaming fraud is draining the royalty pool, the major labels are cutting AI licensing deals without everyone else, and a new tool is trying to put a real price on catalogs. Here is what each shift means for you.
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Three stories this month come back to the same question: is the money you are owed being tracked, protected, and paid to the right people. Fraud is quietly siphoning royalties, AI deals are creating new uses for recordings, and catalog values are being reworked by new technology.
None of it is abstract. Each one touches how your statements are calculated and who gets paid when your catalog earns. When this much is moving, an independent read on your numbers is how you stay sure of them.
The Royalty Solutions Team
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Feature
3–4 minute read
Streaming Fraud Isn't Your Fault. Here's How to Stop Paying for It.
In an anonymous op-ed for Music Business Worldwide, a senior leader in independent distribution makes a pointed case: the platforms hold nearly all the data needed to catch streaming fraud, things like device patterns, IP addresses, and listening behavior, but keep it locked away. Labels and distributors are left to police fraud they cannot fully see, then absorb the takedowns and withheld royalties when something slips through.
The scale is real. Deezer now receives around 75,000 fully AI-generated tracks a day and flags up to 85% of their streams as fraudulent, Apple Music pulled about 2 billion fake streams in 2025, and industry estimates put the total drain near $2 billion a year. The encouraging news is that 2026 is the first year the trend has flattened, as platforms finally pair detection tools with real enforcement.
What this means for you: when a platform flags fraud, the penalty usually lands on the rights holder, not the fraudster. Clean, audit-ready royalty accounting is your defense. When your catalog data, ISRCs, and payment flows are accurate, you can spot anomalies early, respond to enforcement fast, and prove exactly what you are owed. That is the work RSC does for clients every day.
Source: Music Business Worldwide
Talk to RSC About Your Royalties →
Read the Op-Ed on MBW →
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Essential Read
3 minute read
The Majors Are Signing AI Licensing Deals. Independents Are Left Out.
The major labels are settling with the AI music generators they were suing. Warner struck a first-of-its-kind licensing deal with Suno in late 2025, and Universal reached its own agreement with Udio. The terms differ: Udio is moving to a closed model where AI creations stay inside the platform, while Suno can keep its product largely as is, as long as the music it trains on is licensed and users pay to download tracks.
The catch is who is not at the table. Artists on the settling majors may get opt-in terms and some compensation, but independent artists and writers have no such option, and their work can stay in the training data with no pay and no way out. Sony is still in court, so the underlying fair-use question is not settled.
Why this matters: when a catalog earns from a new source, every contributor's entitlement has to be tracked and accounted for. If you own or administer catalogs, now is the time to know exactly where your rights sit in deals like these, and to make sure any new income is tied back to the right owners.
Source: Music Business Worldwide, Billboard
Read on Billboard →
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Industry Update
2–3 minute read
A New AI Tool Wants to Be the "Bloomberg Terminal" for Music Catalogs
Swedish company Chapter Two has launched Baltazar, an AI platform that has already taken in about $2 billion in royalty statements from more than 100,000 catalogs. It cleans up messy, inconsistent statements and turns them into standardized analytics, so investors and advisors can value catalogs and forecast revenue far faster than the old manual approach. Investment bank Shot Tower Capital and its valuation unit RedBrick Advisors have signed on as design partners.
For now the tool is aimed at institutional buyers, but the company plans to open it up to business managers, then labels and songwriters.
RSC's take: tools like this show where catalog valuation is heading, but any valuation is only as reliable as the statements feeding it. If you have ever wondered what your catalog is worth, that answer starts with clean, reconciled royalty data, which is exactly what we build for our clients.
Source: Billboard
Read on Billboard →
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Explore • RSC
How RSC Can Help
Royalty Accounting and Statement Processing
We ingest and reconcile income from distributors, DSPs, PROs, and the MLC, then produce audit-ready statements that a person reviews before they go out. When a fraud crackdown or platform change hits, clean numbers are how you stay sure of yours.
Royalty Audits
If you suspect you are being underpaid, an audit is how you find out. We examine statements from labels, distributors, and licensors to surface underreported income, calculation errors, and foreign collection gaps, on a fixed fee with no cut of anything recovered.
Mechanical Licensing and Catalog Registration
As AI licensing creates new uses and new income for catalogs, getting paid starts with clean registrations. We manage licensing and registration so your rights stay documented and new revenue is tied back to the right owners.
Catalog Valuation and Business Management
When the tools and the market keep shifting, a clear view of what your catalog earns is worth having. We provide NPS and DCF-based valuation plus business management support so you understand your assets and the income behind them.
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♫ Now Playing • Danny's RSC Selections, a set curated by Danny. | Follow RSC on Spotify for more playlists from our team.
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Client Spotlight
Tuff Gong Worldwide
Founded by Ziggy Marley, Tuff Gong Worldwide carries forward the name of Bob Marley's original Tuff Gong label with a wider mission: to represent reggae's legacy and its future across music, publishing, film, and more. The company stewards a catalog rooted in one of the most recognized names in music while continuing to release and license new work.
Tuff Gong Worldwide is among the labels and rights holders RSC supports with royalty accounting and payment processing, keeping a storied catalog earning accurately across today's platforms.
Visit Tuff Gong Worldwide →
See Our Full Client List →
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