A royalty compliance review compares the contractual arrangements for royalty accounting with the resulting royalty reports, or put another way, it compares what royalties are expected and what have been paid. We then highlight discrepancies and recommend further action. We can carry out both one-off reviews of particular agreements and regular analyses, our preferred approach. Both highlight underpayments made during the accounting period. We can also produce reports on sales by country, top seller lists and others that you can define. Our view, from auditing many companies over many years, is that compliance auditing works against complacency, frequently identifies missing revenue, is good management practice and is always money well spent. For smaller record companies prefering to outsource their royalty administration or larger ones needing a burst of resource to deal with the occasional backlog, we offer a royalty administration service. We can also advise on systems and controls if you are setting up your own royalty department. We have extensive experience in implementing, migrating and upgrading royalty systems, (including accounting system interfaces). If a royalty compliance review points out areas of concern or if you have a rolling royalty audit programme, we provide a royalty auditing service. Royalty auditing in the music industry demands a mix of top-end accountancy skills, attention to detail and the ability to find the truth. But it also needs a profound knowledge of the ways in which the industry operates. Music Business Associates was set up by Chris Bevis, one of the world’s leading royalty auditors and a music industry specialist for over 28 years. We are already familiar with the workings of all the major publishing and record companies and many of the people who work in them and we make a point of keeping relationships with them cordial and proper. It gives us a head start in getting to the issues important to you.