When Dev and I first started IC, it was because we knew firsthand – as an artist and label, respectively – how hard it was for catalogs to track profits and pay creators their royalties accurately, transparently, and on-time. The process was hard enough as it was, and it was definitely getting worse. 

What’s causing the shift can be summed up in one word: data. Used to be, the biggest problem a humble label-owner/royalty accountant like myself had was tracking “sales.” CDs, LPs, and sure, iTunes downloads, from one or a few data sources. Not too tough. But with streaming, and the explosion of new places and ways to earn income from music, the spreadsheets and old-school software everyone was using were straining under the weight. It became clear that catalogs that could keep up would thrive, and catalogs that couldn’t would struggle, or worse, have to fold/sell.

What if all this new data, from distributors, webstores, PROs, rights orgs, social platforms, and a thousand other sources, could be pulled into one place, the same place you track your expenses and advances, find the net, and split the profits? What if the data and tools to analyze it could be shared with creators? What would it take to build a place like that?

Mainly: importers. The bread and butter of IC. More than anything our job is to make it easy for catalogs to get all their data into IC, and downloading raw files from the source and uploading straight to IC via our custom-built importers is a tried and true method (we call it the download-upload dance🕺). This has served us and our catalogs well, and we’ll probably always need to have manually-fed importers for certain kinds of data/sources – but there is a better way.

Today we’re pleased to officially announce our integration with Bandcamp, the first of its kind. Now with a few clicks, catalogs that sell music, merch, or anything else on Bandcamp can have those transactions automatically and regularly flow directly into their IC account, saving a crucial step and making it even easier for catalogs to track royalties and pay creators what they’re owed.

Almost every catalog we work with uses Bandcamp. When we explained what IC does for our mutual customers, they were happy to help make it happen. They’ll always be first in our hearts for that reason, but they definitely won’t be the last integration we build – we’ve already got more in the works. 

In the meantime, we’ll continue building the tools and developing the expertise required to help make royalties easier for catalogs and more transparent for creators. If you’re interested in checking us out, grab a free trial or talk to one of the friendly folks from Catalog Sales & Services — we’d love to hear from you.