Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) has launched a new royalty portal for its songwriters which it says offers “unparalleled earnings data, insights and analytics”, in addition to “clear, complete and real-time earnings and data”.
Bold claims – yet if there’s one line from the press release announcing the portal (‘UMPG Window’ ) that will tickle the interest of writers more than any other, it’s probably this:
“The portal launch sees the introduction of a brand-new international royalty ‘pipeline’ feature, enabling users to preview and access earnings as they are received around the world. Building on its popular one-click advance feature, UMPG Window now offers the unique ability for clients to request no-fee advances based on both current period earnings and international pipeline earnings.”
The portal is available via an app downloadable on both iOS and Android and, according to UMPG, is based on “the latest in cloud-indexing technology”.
It allows clients to view earnings by work title, accounting periods, territory, digital service provider, income source, income group, income type, local/international and more.
“In designing and developing UMPG Window, our team worked closely with our songwriters and clients to best understand what they most wanted from a world-class, fully transparent portal and app.”
John Reston, UMPG
Universal says that royalty data is available through both high-level overviews and detailed reports with deeper analytics and insights.
It adds that UMPG Window provides society registration information, but also registration status and full song copyright information on all works.
John Reston, EVP Global Administration at UMPG, said, “In designing and developing UMPG Window, our team worked closely with our songwriters and clients to best understand what they most wanted from a world-class, fully transparent portal and app.
“This kind of collaboration is a reflection of how we do business: our songwriters and publisher clients are partners in everything we do. We will always keep innovating to better the lives of our writers and support their songs, and that is why UMPG continues to raise the bar for the industry.”
UMPG calls UMPG Window “the only royalty portal to provide detailed Film and TV information”, with the app showing production data via “high-level snapshots or detailed reports”, with information on works used and royalties earned. View settings can be customized to see royalties by production, type of usage, cues territory, work code, duration, linked works for each production and more.
Mark Coltman, EVP Global Technology at UMPG, said, “UMPG Window is a testament to our commitment to building and delivering the best, most scalable systems in music publishing.
“Our guiding principle was creating a resource that empowered our songwriters and clients to easily access meaningful, usable and accurate data. We are so proud that the resulting application – functionally rich with superb, instant analytics – will be an outstanding, valuable tool that exceeds all expectations.”
The launch of UMPG Window comes after Sony/ATV unveiled its own new royalty app, which offers features including a cash withdrawal service.
According to MBW’s calculations, Universal Music Publishing Group, led by Chairman and CEO Jody Gerson, generated €1.05bn ($1.18bn) in 2019.
That UMPG revenue number was up 9.2% year-on-year at constant currency and perimeter.Music Business Worldwide
