A new partnership between music technology firm MusicInfra and independent publisher The Royalty Network highlights a growing shift in the music industry: namely, the push to modernize how royalties are tracked, matched, and ultimately paid out in an increasingly complex digital ecosystem.
Announced March 3, the partnership will integrate The Royalty Network’s catalog of more than 800,000 musical works with MusicInfra’s proprietary technology infrastructure, leveraging data generated through YouTube Content Management System to identify missing or under-collected revenue.
While the deal itself focuses on a single publisher’s catalog, and therefore isn't actionable for independent musicians in the short term, this reflects a much broader industry trend. Everyone is focused on solving the problem of royalty leakage.
The Hidden Cost of Metadata Problems
For decades, music royalties have been lost not because they weren’t generated, but because the industry struggled to properly match recordings, compositions, and ownership data across platforms.
Every time a song appears in a video on YouTube, revenue can potentially be generated through advertising or licensing. But if the underlying composition isn’t properly linked to the recording — or if metadata conflicts exist between rightsholders — those payments can go unclaimed or misdirected.
Platforms still collect them, but they sit around with nowhere to go. This is particularly common in large catalogs containing alternate versions, remixes, or recordings uploaded without properly attached metadata.
Under the new partnership, MusicInfra will analyze YouTube’s data to surface hidden or unlinked recordings, identify alternate versions of works, and resolve ownership conflicts that may be preventing proper royalty collection.
+Read more: "The Ultimate Royalties Checklist for Independent Musicians"
Turning Rights Management Into a Proactive System
Traditionally, rights management has been reactive. Publishers and rights administrators often discovered missing royalties months, or years, after the play data comes in, requiring time-consuming claims processes. MusicInfra’s CEO and co-founder Bjorn Lindvall says:
"This partnership demonstrates how our modern technology can transform rights management from a reactive process into a proactive revenue driver.”
Rather than waiting for discrepancies to surface, MusicInfra’s technology analyzes platform data continuously to identify potential revenue gaps, linking recordings to underlying works and flagging conflicts before they become lost income. As catalogs grow larger and distribution becomes more global, this is the new standard.
Because without automated systems to manage millions of recordings circulating across streaming platforms, social media, games, and user-generated video environments, rights tracking quickly becomes unmanageable.
MusicInfra is part of a wave of companies attempting to solve the multi-billion-dollar metadata problems of incomplete data, mismatched ownership claims, and fragmented systems across platforms that continue to leave significant revenue on the table.
Why This Is Relevant
Although this specific partnership applies only to The Royalty Network’s catalog — which includes works by artists such as The Alchemist, Bill Withers, and Dead Prez, to name a few — its implications reach far beyond a single publisher.
In many ways, the music industry is entering a new phase where data accuracy and automated rights management may determine whether royalties are successfully collected at all. As those systems improve, they may gradually establish a new baseline expectation of legitimacy.
A 100% family-owned independent publishing company with over thirty years of experience, The Royalty Network represents a catalog of over 800,000 works on behalf of creators such as The Alchemist, Dead Prez, Gang Starr, Beat Butcha, Bill Withers, Jon Z, Boy Wonder, and a variety of hit catalogs spanning from Bollywood to Dancehall to EDM to Heavy Metal and everything between. Learn more at roynet.com.
MusicInfra is building essential infrastructure for the modern music industry and solving the biggest, multi-billion dollar problem in the music business - getting rightsholders paid correctly and on time. The company addresses critical challenges in rights management, enabling digital platforms and rightsholders to navigate an increasingly complex global landscape more efficiently. Learn more at musicinfra.com.
