Field Notes from the desk.
Dispatches from inside the work. Forensic case histories from the Black Box desk, methodology papers from the research team, market briefs sized in dollars rather than rhetoric. Fifteen pieces in research this quarter. First filings posting May 2026.
An estimated $561M sits unclaimed at the MLC. That is one country, one rights type.
The scale of the black box, measured in dollars rather than rhetoric. And what a single-country figure implies globally.
2,562 breakouts surfaced. How many were acted on?
The window between a genuine organic breakout and a commercial response is shrinking. Most artists with momentum signatures have no infrastructure to capitalise on them.
Touring still follows streaming geography. Labels are still ignoring it.
In a significant number of markets, streaming data signals meaningful live demand that booking agents are not acting on. The gap is measurable.
Neighbouring rights are the most systematically underclaimed income stream in recorded music.
UK artists performing on recordings played in Germany, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia are owed money from three of the highest-paying neighbouring rights societies in the world. Most are not claiming it.
How this works.
Each piece begins with a deep-research pass against the public literature, then gets drafted by the desk that owns the question. Status pills flip from In research to Forthcoming to Published as pieces move down the pipeline. To receive new Field Notes by email when they post, drop us a line.