Independent music publisher Minds on Fire has reduced its royalty payment processing time from roughly two weeks to a few hours after adopting Tipalti’s Mass Payments platform, according to Mariana Maglione, the company’s Head of Finance.
The shift affects how the publisher pays songwriters across an international roster and manages cross-border payment requirements.
Manual payment workflows created delays
Before the integration, each royalty payment depended on collecting several items from songwriters or their representatives:
- invoices
- legal names and addresses
- bank details
- tax information
Maglione said that dependency was the largest obstacle to paying songwriters quickly.
“The biggest bottleneck was waiting for invoices and complete payment information,” Maglione said. “Even when the royalty calculation was ready, we couldn’t release payment until we received the required documents and details.”
The process became more complex for songs with multiple co-writers in different countries, where each payee could have distinct banking requirements, currencies, exchange rates, and international transfer fees. A single missing document or detail could delay a writer’s payment.
“Songwriters complete their payment and tax information securely through the Tipalti portal, and we can raise self-billings and pay them based on their royalty statements without waiting for individual invoices,” Maglione said.
Centralized onboarding for international co-writers
For international co-writers, the platform shows payment methods and currencies available in each payee’s country, according to Maglione. Minds on Fire manages the process from a central dashboard.
“After each co-writer completes their onboarding through Tipalti, we can monitor everyone’s onboarding and payments status centrally, making international collaborations considerably easier to manage,” Maglione said.
“A royalty run of that size could take us at least two weeks to complete,” Maglione said. “Tipalti allows us to manage the entire run through one central workflow. What previously took weeks can now be completed within a few hours.”
Faster payments and stronger songwriter relationships
The reduction in processing time also changes which payments are economically viable to issue. Smaller royalty balances that once carried disproportionate administrative overhead now move through the same streamlined process as larger payments, according to the publisher.
“Writers notice quickly if a payment is late or if they don’t understand its status,” Maglione said. “Paying accurately and on time is therefore an important part of building trust between a publisher and its roster. Greater consistency and transparency have reduced uncertainty and follow-up emails. When a songwriter or manager does contact us, we have clearer information available and can respond more quickly.”
Minds on Fire said the integration supports a payment experience comparable to larger publishing firms while keeping manual administration in check as its catalog and roster expand.
“As our catalog and international roster have grown, Tipalti has let us manage more payees without the same increase in manual administration,” Maglione said. “Self-service onboarding, centralized payment information, and bulk processing mean that growth does not result in a proportionate increase in finance work. This gives our existing team more capacity to focus on reporting, financial controls, and supporting our songwriters.”
