Q.01What are black box royalties?+
Black box is an informal industry term for royalty income that has been collected but has not reached the rights holder entitled to it. It is not one accounting category. See the section.
Q.02What is the difference between unmatched, unclaimed and suspense royalties?+
They are not synonyms. The Mechanical Licensing Collective reports unmatched, unclaimed and suspense income as separate categories rather than one pool, and the route to payment differs for each. See the section.
Q.03Why do royalties go unpaid when the usage is visible?+
The route from use to payment breaks in four common places: registration data, identifiers, territory and rights type. See the section.
Q.04What is Royalty Investigator?+
Royalty Investigator looks into missing royalties for publishers, songwriters, estates, catalogue funds and rights teams. It investigates and documents. It does not file claims and does not replace a society, an administrator or an adviser. See the section.
Q.05How is it different from royalty accounting or administration software?+
Royalty accounting and administration systems hold and process the operational record: registrations, statements, splits and payments as they are. Royalty Investigator works on the gaps between those records. It compares what an administrator holds with official registration and usage evidence, classifies the conflicts, and prepares a file another organisation can review. The service works alongside those systems rather than replacing them.
Q.06What does a royalty investigation produce?+
A documented evidence pack: the source records with the date and origin of each, the conflicts found, the investigator who reviewed it, and clearly labelled possible-value scenarios. Values remain labelled as scenarios until a claim is acknowledged and settled. See the section.
Q.07Is the investigation record tribunal-grade?+
The investigation record is designed to support tribunal-grade scrutiny when the stated source and custody conditions are met, as set out in the evidence standard. Source quality, methodology, processing, investigator judgement and the resulting finding remain open to appropriate challenge. No tribunal or claim outcome is guaranteed. See the section.
Q.08Does Royalty Investigator file claims or contact societies for me?+
No. It prepares a reviewable evidence base that you or an instructed adviser use for claim preparation, filing and follow-up. Filing routes, deadlines and eligibility rules are specific to the society, territory and rights type, and the decision to pursue a claim stays with the authorised rights holder and their advisers.
Q.09How are engagements scoped, and what does a royalty investigation cost?+
Engagements are B2B and scoped around four things: the catalogue, the processing the investigation question requires, the secure evidence workspace and hosting that must be maintained, and the investigator access the team needs. Royalty Investigator is never sold as a percentage of recovered royalties. Pricing is agreed directly with the organisation and no public price card is published.
Q.10Do you take on contested catalogues and estates?+
Yes. Contested writer credits, deceased writers and inherited catalogues, historic publisher acquisitions and catalogues in the middle of a transaction are all common starting points, because those are exactly the situations where the registration record and the commercial reality have drifted apart. Where a matter needs legal representation, we work alongside the instructed firm and prepare evidence for their review.
