Royalty periods and artist statements

What it is

A royalty period is one accounting cycle, like a quarter. You put the sales files for that cycle in it, Aden works out what each artist is owed from your deal terms, takes advances and costs off the balance, and publishes a statement to every artist team. Artists see their statements in Aden, and you record when you paid them.

Using it

Create a period (label owners and admins): open Royalties and click New period. Aden suggests the next quarter after your last period. Sales files dated inside it are filed under it automatically, now and whenever you import or sync more. Under More options you can hold back a share of physical royalties for returns (released in the next period) and set a minimum payout: balances below it carry forward.

Calculate: open the period and click Calculate. Each artist gets a draft statement: royalties from the deal model attached to the track, its album or the artist team (the most specific wins), or else from a rights deal your business is the counterpart on. Amounts in other currencies convert at the period's Exchange rates, captured at the first calculation so recalculating never moves an amount; edit them from the "..." menu while the period is open. Unreported shows income that couldn't be paid: lines not matched to a track, and tracks with no deal. Fix those and calculate again.

Advances and costs: click Add advance or cost to record money you paid an artist or spent on their behalf (a video, a campaign). It is recouped from their royalties at the next calculation and also shows on the team's financials. Advances entered on a rights deal are recouped too. Each one is charged once.

Adjustments: open an artist's statement to add a manual line, such as the opening balance from the system you used before Aden, or a correction.

Close and publish: Close period recalculates once more and locks the balances; close periods in order, since each balance carries into the next. Publish statements shows each artist team its statement in Financials → Statements. You can reopen a closed period, or unpublish a published one while nothing is marked paid.

Pay: once published, select statements and choose Mark paid (optionally with the payment reference), or download the Payment file, a CSV your payout provider or bank imports (Tipalti, Wise, bulk transfers). Mark unpaid undoes it.

Exports: the "..." menu exports every statement in the period as CSV or Excel. Each statement downloads as a PDF, or as CSV or Excel with every line.

For artists: open your team's Financials and the Statements tab lists every statement your labels published, with royalties, what was recouped and what is payable. Open one for the details and the PDF.