Notes.fm, a music royalty collection platform founded by Stem co-founder Tim Luckow, announced Thursday (Sept. 17) it has raised $5 million from artists and music industry leaders including Benny Blanco, Zach Bryan, Ari Emanuel, Sam Hendel and Julie Greenwald.
Launched in 2024, Notes reviews catalogs across streaming services and collection societies, including the Mechanical Licensing Collective and SoundExchange, to recover royalties. The company says it has identified more than $10 million in previously unclaimed royalties for songs performed by James Blake, Zach Bryan, Mt. Joy, Girl In Red and others.
“Everyone that is basically investing in this round is investing because we found them money,” Luckow said, adding that Notes has found money for 95% of the people who use the platform. “Artists should be able to release music and collect every royalty from day one. We built Notes to recover what has historically been missed.”
Funding plans#
The company will use the funding to scale marketing efforts and expand internationally. Additional participants in the round include producer Tainy, Mt. Joy frontman Matt Quinn, and companies Foundations, Mick Management and Twenty One Management.
Notes was founded on Luckow’s belief that distribution and publishing need to be combined for artists to collect all the money they are owed.
Platform services#
Notes offers three main services:
- Credits: a free music credits database with more than 150 million song codes and credits that rights owners can use to organize and verify royalty data and correct registration issues.
- Releases: combines music distribution, publishing administration and financial management in one workflow for a subscription fee of around $5 a month.
- Financial accounts: partners with payment processor Stripe to help artists collect and manage their money.
Competitive landscape#
Notes faces competition from tech-forward collection platforms and distributors. Luckow said his background helping build Stem, a fintech distributor known for handling split digital royalty payments, gives Notes an edge because many of those relationships have followed him to Notes.
Notes has around 10 full and contract employees and counts artists, catalog funds and other rights holders among its users.
“We want to become the best music collection royalty platform on the internet worldwide, and we want more people to release music with us from the start so we can go straight away and collect their money,” Luckow said.
