Tell Us What Brought You Here Today

• What's the trigger that made you explore improving royalty matching right now? Options: Internal audit flagged unmatched plays, Recent catalog acquisition, Quarterly/annual financial review, Investor or due-diligence request, Songwriter disputes spiking, Other
• Which internal stakeholder first raised this as a problem? Options: Head of Royalties, CFO / VP Finance, COO, Head of Product/Technology, Owner/Founder, Other
• How urgent is a fix from your perspective? Options: Immediate (0–3 months), Near term (3–6 months), Within the year (6–12 months), Longer term (>12 months), Undecided
• Briefly describe the specific incident or insight that prompted you to start this conversation (what did you find, and when)?

If 20% of your plays were slipping through the cracks, would you even know?

• What percentage of streaming plays do you estimate are currently unmatched in your system? Options: <5%, 5–9%, 10–14%, 15–25%, 26–40%, >40%, Don't know / haven't measured
• How do you today surface unmatched plays and translate them into a projected revenue loss? Options: Automated reports, Manual sampling and spreadsheets, External consultant audit, We don't reliably measure it, Other
• How often do you run match-rate reconciliations across platforms and territories? Options: Monthly, Quarterly, Annually, Ad-hoc, Never
• What concrete consequences have you seen from unmatched plays (revenue loss, failed audits, valuation impact, writer churn)? Options: Recovered revenue lost, Increased disputes, Negative audit findings, Acquisition valuation impact, Songwriter dissatisfaction and churn, Other
• How confident are you in your existing match-rate numbers and the underlying evidence? Options: Very confident, Somewhat confident, Skeptical, Not confident at all, We don't have numbers

Show Me Your Catalog’s Weakest Links

• Approximately how many unique composition and recording records are in the active catalog you'd want us to evaluate? Options: <1,000, 1,000–10,000, 10,000–50,000, 50,000–250,000, >250,000, Unsure / need to confirm
• Which metadata fields do you reliably maintain for each asset today? Options: Title, Composer(s), ISWC, ISRC, UPC, Writer splits, Publisher affiliation, Alternate titles/aliases, Release date, Territory flags, Other
• How would you rate the overall completeness and standardization of that metadata? Options: Highly standardized and complete, Mostly complete with known gaps, Patchy—complete for top assets only, Poor—many missing fields, Unknown
• Which systems currently store your catalog and rights information? Options: Spreadsheets (Excel/Google Sheets), Internal database / CMS, Legacy royalty platform (name), Third-party admin / sub-publisher, Rights management SaaS (name), Other
• What common data quality issues do you regularly see (misspellings, duplicates, alternate recordings, missing ISRC/ISWC, incorrect splits)? Options: Misspellings / inconsistent titles, Duplicate records, Alternate recordings not linked, Missing ISRC or ISWC, Incorrect or missing splits, Territory mismatches, Other
• How quickly can you extract and share a sample catalog and a quarter of play logs for a side-by-side demo? Options: Immediate (same day), 1–3 business days, 1–2 weeks, 2–4 weeks, >4 weeks / requires approvals

Why Isn't Your Team Solving This Already?

• Who currently owns matching and reconciliation day-to-day, and how is that work distributed? Options: Head of Royalties, Royalty Accounting team, External administrator, VP Finance, Shared across teams, Other
• How many full-time equivalents (FTEs) or contractors are focused on reconciliation and dispute handling? Options: 0 (outsourced fully), 1–2, 3–5, 6–10, >10, Unknown
• What manual or spreadsheet processes are creating the most drag today? Options: Manual matching by title, Hand-edited splits, Ad-hoc email reconciliations, Manual ingestion of platform reports, Custom scripts / ad-hoc tooling, Other
• Has the team resisted automation or platform changes? If so, what are the core reasons (trust, visibility, fear of incorrect payments, legacy contracts)? Options: Trust/visibility concerns, Fear of incorrect payments, Legacy vendor/contracts, Internal politics/resistance to change, No resistance, Other
• Describe the current songwriter dispute workflow and average time-to-resolution—what part is most painful?

If the Books Were Clean, What Would Actually Change for You?

• Which business outcomes matter most if we can materially improve match rates and transparency? Options: Recovered revenue, Faster audit readiness, Higher acquisition valuation, Fewer songwriter disputes, Lower operational cost, Better reporting for stakeholders, Other
• What minimum uplift in match-rate would make a vendor switch an easy decision for you? Options: +1–3 percentage points, +4–9 pp, +10–20 pp, +>20 pp, Depends on revenue dollar impact
• What processing SLA do you need for delivering a finished royalty statement from raw play logs? Options: <24 hours, <48 hours, 3–7 days, Monthly batch, Flexible / depends on use case
• What level of reporting granularity is required to satisfy your finance team and songwriters? Options: Songwriter-level transaction detail, Recording-level summary, Platform-by-platform breakdown, Territory-by-territory reporting, Custom dashboards & exports
• How will you measure success at 90 days and at 12 months? Be specific about metrics and thresholds if possible.

Where Decisions Live — Who Signs, Who Blocks, Who Needs to Be Convinced?

• Who are the required approvers for vendor selection and contract sign-off? Options: Head of Royalties, CFO / VP Finance, IT / Security, Legal / Procurement, CEO / Owner, Board
• What procurement or security checks must a vendor pass (SOC2, ISO, data residency, NDA, security questionnaire)? Options: SOC2 Type II, ISO 27001, Data residency/localization, Signed NDA, Security questionnaire, Custom legal terms, Other
• What is the typical procurement timeline at your organization once stakeholders are aligned? Options: <2 weeks, 2–4 weeks, 1–2 months, 2–3 months, >3 months
• What budget range has been allocated or would be required to move forward for a full migration? Options: Pilot/POC budget only (small), $50k–$100k, $100k–$250k, $250k–$500k, >$500k, Undetermined / depends on ROI
• Who will be the executive sponsor and the day-to-day project owner if we proceed?

What Could Go Wrong — and How Would You Want It Handled?

• Which migration risks worry you most (data quality loss, incorrect payments, integration delays, songwriter pushback)? Options: Data quality loss, Incorrect royalty calculations, Split-rule misconfiguration, Integration/API delays, Operational downtime, Songwriter dissatisfaction, Other
• Have you ever run a parallel processing period before? What did you learn from it? Options: Yes—successful, Yes—problematic, No, but planned, No, never
• What rollback conditions would you require to pause or revert a cutover? Options: Match-rate decline vs baseline, Material accounting errors, Client-side data mapping failure, Songwriter disputes spike, Legal/contract issues, Other
• What audit or transparency controls are non-negotiable for you (full audit log, calc reconciliation, songwriter portal access)? Options: Full audit logs, Calculation reconciliation reports, Songwriter-level portal, Versioned data exports, Third-party audit rights, Other
• How would you like to validate accuracy during a pilot to feel comfortable moving to production? Options: Side-by-side match-rate comparison, Reconcile sample statements, End-to-end payment simulation, Songwriter sample confirmations, Third-party validation

Are You Ready for a Side-by-Side Test?

• Would you be open to a side-by-side comparison using a representative quarter and your sample catalog? Options: Yes — ready now, Yes — with approvals, Maybe — need more info, Not at this time
• Which quarter(s) and platform feeds should we include in the test to reflect your core concerns? Options: Most recent quarter, Last audited quarter, Quarter of a catalog acquisition, Top platforms only (Spotify/Apple), International platforms included, Other
• Which sample size would you prefer for the test? Options: Full catalog for the quarter, Top 1,000 earning tracks, Random sample (statistically significant), Problem-artist subset, Custom selection
• Who will own providing play logs, platform statements, and catalog extracts for the pilot? Options: In-house data/tech, Royalty team, External admin, Platform contacts, Need to identify owner
• What acceptance criteria would make this test a clear win for you? Be specific (match-rate uplift, recovered $ amount, processing time).

Timeline, Governance, and Next Steps (Let’s Lock the Path Forward)

• What is your ideal go-live window for a full migration if the pilot meets success criteria? Options: Next quarter (0–3 months), Next 3–6 months, Within 6–12 months, 12+ months, TBD
• Which milestones must be completed before cutover (data extracts, mapping sign-off, integration tests, parallel run)? Options: Data extracts and sample validation, Ownership mapping and split rule sign-off, API/integration tests, Parallel processing period, User training and change management, Legal/commercial sign-off
• Who should be invited to an internal kickoff with our team to unblock the pilot and approvals? Options: Head of Royalties, CFO / VP Finance, IT / Data Lead, Legal or Procurement, Operational lead / analysts, Other
• What internal approvals are outstanding and when are decisions expected? Options: Procurement approval, Budget approval, Security review, Executive sponsor sign-off, None—already approved, Other
• Is there anything we haven't asked that would materially change your willingness to proceed? Tell us openly.

Quick Snapshot — Tell Us About Your Catalog

• How many recordings/compositions are in the catalog you'd like us to evaluate (approximate is fine)? Options: < 1,000, 1,000–10,000, 10,000–50,000, 50,000–250,000, > 250,000
• Which quarter or timeframe do you want us to use as the baseline for match-rate comparison?
• What formats do you currently maintain for your catalog metadata? (pick all that apply) Options: CSV/Excel exports, Proprietary admin platform export, Database dump (SQL/CSV), MusicXML/EDA, Third-party vendor format, Other
• Who on your team is the primary owner of catalog truth (title, ISRC, ISWC, ownership splits)? Options: Head of Royalties, VP/Director of Finance, Metadata Manager, External Admin Vendor, Other
• If you had to summarize your catalog quality in one sentence, what would you say?

Are You Comfortable Losing Revenue You Can Find?

• What percentage of plays do you currently see as unmatched in your system for the baseline period? Options: < 5%, 5–10%, 10–15%, 15–25%, > 25%
• How does the gap between reported plays and matched plays make you feel about your upcoming audit or catalog valuation? Options: Very concerned, Somewhat concerned, Neutral, Confident
• When you think about unmatched plays, what keeps you awake at night—lost revenue, misallocations, songwriter complaints, or something else? Options: Lost revenue, Incorrect payments, Disputes from writers, Audit exposure, Other
• Has there been a recent event (acquisition, audit, platform notice) that triggered this review? Tell us what changed and when.
• What would a meaningful recovery look like to you in dollar terms or percentage uplift over your current matched revenue?

Where Do the Misses Actually Live?

• When you look at unmatched records, which root causes show up most often—metadata errors, multiple recordings, wrong ISRC, international society mapping, or audio variants? Options: Metadata errors (typos), Alternate recordings/edits, Missing/incorrect ISRCs, Society/territory mapping, Language/diacritics issues, Multiple composers/arrangements, Other
• Can you share an example of a recurring metadata problem—what it looks like and how often it appears?
• Which platforms or territories show the highest fraction of unmatched plays for you? Options: Global streaming (e.g., Spotify/Apple), YouTube/Content ID, Radio monitoring, Local DSPs in specific territories, Collection Society statements, Other
• How do you currently measure match quality (exact match, fuzzy match threshold, phonetic match), and what baseline numbers do you track? Options: Exact title/ISRC match, Fuzzy/algorithmic match, Phonetic/name-matching, Manual analyst reconciliation, Other
• Roughly how many unique songs account for your top 80% of unmatched plays? Options: < 50, 50–200, 200–1,000, 1,000–5,000, Unknown

How Long From Play to Payment — And Who’s Paying the Price?

• How long does it take today from receiving raw play data to producing a finished royalty statement? Options: < 24 hours, 1–3 days, 1–2 weeks, 2–8 weeks, > 2 months
• Which parts of the timeline create the most delay—data ingestion, matching, validation, split application, or reporting? Options: Ingestion, Matching, Validation/QA, Split rules application, Report generation, Payment distribution
• How many full-time equivalents (FTEs) does your team allocate to reconciliation and dispute resolution each month? Options: < 1, 1–3, 4–6, 7–15, > 15
• Tell us about a recent month where processing time caused a missed deadline or escalation—what happened and what were the consequences?
• How many open disputes or exceptions do you typically carry between quarters? Options: < 50, 50–200, 200–1,000, 1,000–5,000, > 5,000

Which Tools Are Helping vs Which Are Letting You Down?

• If your current toolset had to defend itself, what would it say about why it’s failing to recover plays?
• List the primary systems you use today for ingestion, matching, accounting, and reporting (select all that apply). Options: In-house database/ETL, Commercial royalty platform, Spreadsheets (Excel/Sheets), Third-party admin service, Collection society portal, BI/reporting tool (Tableau/Looker), Other
• Which of these capabilities are missing or unreliable in your current stack—API access, phonetic matching, territory mapping, writer transparency, or audit trail? Options: API access, Phonetic/fuzzy matching, Territory/society mapping, Songwriter-level transaction visibility, Audit logs/change history, Automated split handling
• Do you have automated integrations with DSPs and societies, or do you import statement files manually? Options: Fully automated integrations, Partial automation + manual imports, Manual imports only, We rely on third-party reports
• What is the biggest risk you’ve experienced from tooling limitations—incorrect payments, lost revenue, missed audits, or team burnout? Options: Incorrect payments, Lost revenue, Missed audit deadlines, High dispute volume, Staff burnout

What Would Actually Change the Numbers (and Your Confidence)?

• If we could guarantee a measurable uplift, what metric would you use to judge success—match-rate, recovered revenue, time-to-statement, or dispute reduction? Options: Match-rate improvement, Recovered revenue ($), Reduction in time-to-statement, Fewer disputes/support tickets, Songwriter transparency
• What target match-rate or dollar-recovery would make you comfortable moving away from your legacy process?
• How granular does reporting need to be to satisfy your finance team and your songwriters—song-level, writer-level, play-by-play, or statement summaries? Options: Song-level with splits, Writer-level transaction detail, Play-by-play event logs, High-level monthly summaries, Custom reports
• What acceptance criteria or SLAs would your finance team require before signing off on cutover?
• How important is songwriter-facing transparency to reducing disputes, and what would ideal transparency look like to them? Options: Critical, Important, Nice to have, Not needed

What Would Make a Transition Feel Safe Right Now?

• What single failure during onboarding would cause you to pause or rollback a migration? Options: Incorrect payments during parallel run, Loss of historic data, Integration failure with a major society/DSP, Unexpected costs, Lack of stakeholder buy-in
• Which acceptance tests do you consider non‑negotiable during a parallel run—match-rate parity, sample reconciliations, or full statement agreement? Options: Match-rate parity, Sample statement reconciliation, End-to-end payout accuracy, Portal transparency verification, All of the above
• Who are the decision-makers that must sign off on migration milestones, and what concerns will each of them raise?
• Describe any regulatory, audit, or society-specific compliance requirements we must respect during data handling and cutover.
• What rollback criteria would reassure you that we can stop and recover safely if something goes wrong?

What We Need From You to Get Started (Concrete Checklist)

• Which sample artifacts can you provide immediately—catalog export, recent DSP play files, last quarter statements, or split-rule tables? Options: Catalog export (CSV/DB), DSP play logs, Recent statements, Split-rule definitions, Access to vendor APIs, None ready yet
• Are there security, NDA, or privacy constraints we should know about before you share sample data? Options: Standard NDA in place, Must route via secure SFTP, Requires SOC2/ISO assurances, No special constraints, Other
• Who should our technical team contact to arrange ingest access and sample transfers (name, role, email)?
• Realistically, when could you make a representative sample available for a side‑by‑side test? Options: Immediately, Within 1–2 weeks, In 2–4 weeks, Longer than a month
• Is there anything else we should know that would change how we scope the initial mapping or the side‑by‑side experience?

Tell Me About Your Catalog — Start Simple

• How many unique recordings and compositions are in the catalog you'd like us to evaluate? Options: Under 5,000, 5,000–50,000, 50,000–200,000, 200,000–1M, Over 1M, Prefer to state exact number
• What file formats and exports do you currently produce for catalog, splits, and play data? Options: CSV/TSV, XML, JSON, Proprietary vendor format, APIs only, Other
• Walk me through a single song record you consider high-quality—what fields are consistently complete and which routinely fail?
• How frequently is your canonical catalog refreshed or reconciled (e.g., weekly, monthly)? Options: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Irregular/Ad hoc
• Who is the internal owner of catalog data and splits (title and team)? Options: Head of Royalties, VP/Director Finance, Metadata Manager, Product/Tech, Other

Are You Quietly Losing Royalties?

• When you review unmatched plays today, how confident are you that hidden revenue isn't permanently slipping away? Options: Very confident, Somewhat confident, Uncertain, Not confident
• What baseline match rate does your current system report for a representative quarter? Options: >95%, 85–95%, 70–85%, 50–70%, <50%
• How do you calculate that baseline — the full pipeline, a sample, or an audit by a third party? Options: System-reported aggregate, Sample-based audit, Third-party audit, Internal reconciliation, Don't know
• Which income streams show the worst matching performance (select all that apply)? Options: Streaming (on-demand), Interactive radio, Terrestrial radio, Sync/placements, Live performance, Mechanical, Other
• Tell me about a specific incident where an unmatched play turned into a contractual or valuation problem—what happened and who raised it?

What's the True Cost of Unmatched Plays?

• If your unmatched rate were reduced by 15 percentage points tomorrow, what would that change about your business in the next 12 months?
• Estimate the quarterly revenue impact of current unmatched plays for your catalog (approximate is fine). Options: Under $10k, $10k–$100k, $100k–$500k, $500k–$2M, Over $2M, Prefer to state exact
• Has unmatched play data ever affected a catalog valuation or transaction diligence in your organization? Describe the outcome.
• Which internal KPIs would be most persuasive to Finance and the CFO when we show uplift (select up to three)? Options: Match-rate improvement, Recovered revenue $, Faster processing SLA, Reduced dispute volume, Songwriter-level transparency
• Who outside Finance (e.g., A&R, Legal, Writers) feels the pain of unmatched plays most acutely and why?

Who Owns What — and Could That Be Wrong?

• How confident are you that your current ownership and split rules are coded correctly across the catalog? Options: Very confident, Somewhat confident, Unsure, Not confident
• Where are your split rules stored and in what format right now? Options: Embedded in legacy system, Separate splits file (CSV/XML), Collection-society mappings, ERP/finance system, Other
• Approximately how many titles include manual overrides, special-case splits, or legacy contracts that differ from standard splits? Options: None, Under 1%, 1–5%, 5–20%, Over 20%
• Do you maintain songwriter identifiers that reconcile to collection societies (e.g., IPI/CAE/CAE-like IDs)? Options: Yes, consistently, Partially, Rarely, Not at all
• Give an example of a misallocation or dispute caused by an incorrect split—what was at stake and how was it resolved?

Inevitable Data Quality Gaps — How Deep Are They?

• If we pulled your 1,000 least-matched records, how many do you think are fixable through automated enrichment vs requiring human research? Options: Mostly automated (>75%), Mixed (50–75%), Mostly human (25–50%), Predominantly manual (<25%)
• Which metadata problems are most common for your catalog (select all that apply)? Options: Misspelled titles, Artist name variants, Alternate recordings, Missing ISRC/ISWC, Incorrect release grouping, Territory mismatches, Other
• How many FTEs (or equivalent contractor hours) are devoted to cleanup and dispute management today? Options: 0–1, 1–3, 4–6, 7–15, Over 15
• What tools or processes do you currently use for phonetic matching, fingerprinting, or metadata enrichment? Options: In-house scripts, Commercial enrichment tools, Manual research/spreadsheets, No formal tools, Other
• Describe a recent metadata fix that materially improved matching—what changed and who led it?

If Matching Worked Flawlessly, What Would Change?

• If your match rate improved by 15 points this quarter, what immediate operational or customer-facing outcomes would you want to see?
• Which metrics would you present to executives to demonstrate success (pick up to three)? Options: Match-rate uplift, Recovered revenue amount, Processing time from plays to statement, Reduced dispute counts, Songwriter transparency score
• How would you like songwriter-level transparency to appear in a portal—what minimum transaction detail is required? Options: Play-level events, Aggregated by territory/platform, Detailed payer/source info, History of splits and adjustments, Other
• What operational changes would you need internally if recovered revenue increases materially (e.g., staffing, tax, payment cadence)?
• Who inside your organization would be the biggest advocate for higher match rates, and who might resist the change? Options: Head of Royalties, CFO/Finance, Legal/Contracts, Artist Relations/A&R, IT/Engineering, Other

What Would Make You Say 'Go'?

• What single piece of evidence from a pilot would convince the CFO and Head of Royalties to proceed to migration?
• Do you require a side-by-side match-rate comparison on the same quarter of streaming data as part of acceptance? Options: Yes, No, Maybe/depends
• What acceptance thresholds would you set for pilot success? (select all that apply) Options: Absolute match-rate target (e.g., >90%), Match-rate uplift (e.g., +10 points), Recovered revenue threshold, Processing SLA (hours/days), Reduced dispute volume
• How long of a parallel-run period would make you comfortable before cutting over fully? Options: 1–2 weeks, 1 month, 2–3 months, 3–6 months, Depends on results
• Do you require sample statement reconciliation with your legacy system before sign-off? Options: Yes, mandatory, Preferred but not mandatory, No

Who Needs to Be in the Room (And Who Can Kill the Deal)?

• If a single stakeholder could block the project, who is most likely to do so and what would their objection be? Options: CFO (financial risk), Head of Royalties (accuracy concerns), Legal (contracts/data), IT (integration effort), Other
• Please list the decision-makers and their expected approval timelines (name, title, timeline).
• Which approval gates exist (budget, legal, security, board) and where do you anticipate the longest delays? Options: Budget, Legal, Security/IT, Executive sponsorship, Board/Owner sign-off
• Which stakeholders prioritize audit trails and immutable evidence of matching decisions? Options: Finance, Legal/Compliance, Royalties Ops, External auditors, Other
• Who will be the day-to-day product owner and the technical point of contact for integrations? Options: Royalties Ops Manager, Finance Manager, Head of IT, External vendor, Other

How Ready Are Your Systems and Teams for Cutover?

• Which integration or collection-society format has historically taken the longest to onboard? Options: Proprietary API, FTP/XML batch, CSV templates, EDI/legacy formats, Collection society-specific formats, Other
• Do you currently have ready extracts for the following: catalog, historical splits, play logs, and payer metadata? Options: Catalog, Historical splits, Play logs, Payer/platform metadata
• What level of platform access can we expect during onboarding (read-only, admin, API keys)? Options: Read-only, Admin access, API keys with scoped permissions, No access until contract signed
• How comfortable is your ops team with a parallel-run model where two systems process the same plays simultaneously? Options: Very comfortable, Somewhat comfortable, Neutral, Resistant
• Who will own training and cutover communications to songwriters and internal teams? Options: Royalties Ops, Communications/PR, Finance, External vendor, Other

Small Next Steps to Keep Momentum

• What is the earliest realistic date you could provide sample catalog and play files for a pilot? Options: Within 3 business days, Within 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, Longer
• Which of these small commitments can you make this week to unblock the pilot? Options: Share sample files, Approve NDA/data agreement, Introduce technical contact, Schedule kickoff call, None right now
• Who will sign the mutual commercial or data-sharing terms on your side (name/title)?
• Are there any immediate red flags or constraints (legal, security, resource) we should know before scheduling work? Options: Legal review required, Security assessment required, Budget cycle constraints, Staffing limitations, None
• If we moved forward, what does a realistic pilot timeline look like from your perspective (weeks to key milestones)? Options: 2–4 weeks, 4–8 weeks, 8–12 weeks, 12+ weeks, Undecided

Quick Snapshot — Why We're Talking Today

• What brought you to explore a catalog-matching audit right now? Options: Internal audit flagged issues, Recent catalog acquisition, Preparing for valuation or due diligence, Quarterly/unmatched play spike, Proactive modernization, Other
• Tell us briefly about your catalog: how many unique recordings/compositions and active songwriters are in scope for this engagement?
• Which income sources do you most want to address first? Options: Streaming (on-demand), Interactive radio, Radio/terrestrial, Live performance, Sync/licensing, Mechanical collections
• How quickly do you need evidence of improvement (proof-of-value)? Options: Within 2 weeks, 2–4 weeks, 1–2 months, 3+ months, Unsure
• Who on your team will be our primary contact for day-to-day decisions during discovery and the side-by-side?

If This Keeps Happening, What Gets Lost?

• If 15–25% of plays remain unmatched each quarter, what does that feel like for you as Head of Royalties or CFO?
• What's your current baseline match rate on a typical quarter of streaming data? Options: >95%, 90–95%, 80–90%, 70–80%, <70%, Unsure / varies by territory
• Estimate the annual revenue you believe is currently uncollected due to unmatched plays (ballpark is fine).
• How long have you been seeing this gap in match rates? Options: A few months, 1–2 years, 3–5 years, Longer than 5 years, Just discovered
• What attempts have you made to recover these plays so far? Options: Manual spreadsheet reconciliation, Legacy royalty platform tweaks, Outsourced limited audits, No focused effort yet, Other
• When unmatched revenue is discussed internally, who tends to feel the most urgency — and why? Options: Head of Royalties, CFO/Finance, CEO/Board, Legal, IT, Other

Who Holds the Keys — Decision, Risk & Approval

• If this project stalls, whose sign-off or objection typically causes the delay? Options: CFO/Budget owner, Head of Royalties, Head of IT/Integrations, Legal/Compliance, Procurement, External collection society
• Which approval gates must we clear before starting data ingestion and side‑by‑side testing? Options: Legal review, Data privacy/security sign-off, Procurement SOW, Finance/commercial approval, IT security/infrastructure, Other
• How does your procurement timeline typically run for vendor engagements of this type? Options: Fast-track: <2 weeks, Standard: 2–6 weeks, Extended: 6–12 weeks, Long: 3+ months, Unsure
• Are there existing contracts with collection societies or aggregators that could limit data sharing or integrations? Options: Yes — significant constraints, Yes — minor constraints, No, Unsure
• Who will be ultimately accountable for accepting the side-by-side results and signing off on cutover?

What Would Real Success Feel Like?

• Would you rather see a rapid, modest match-rate uplift or a larger recovery that takes longer — which would move you to change systems? Options: Rapid, smaller uplift, Larger uplift even if slower, Need both speed and scale, Unsure
• What target match-rate improvement would make you confident this platform is worth adopting? Options: +1–3 percentage points, +3–7 pts, +7–15 pts, +15+ pts, Unsure / Depends on revenue recovered
• Which outcome matters most when evaluating success? Options: Recovered revenue, Songwriter-level transparency, Processing speed (time-to-statement), Reduced disputes/support load, Accurate split-rule handling
• What minimum processing SLA would you require from raw play data to finished royalty statement in a production state? Options: Same day, 24–48 hours, 3–7 days, Monthly batch, Depends on territory
• Describe the reporting granularity you need for internal sign-off and songwriter transparency (examples: transaction-level, per-songrollup, territory rollups). Options: Transaction-level (plays/events), Per recording/per composition, Per territory, Per collection society, Aggregated monthly statements
• Which acceptance criteria must be demonstrated during the side-by-side for you to approve migration?

Where Your Data Might Trip Us Up

• How confident are you in the quality of your catalog metadata to survive enrichment and phonetic matching? Options: Very confident, Mostly confident, Uneven — some catalogs good, others poor, Not confident, Unsure
• Which of these metadata issues are most common in your catalog? Options: Misspellings/typos, Missing ISRC/ISWC, Incorrect or missing writer splits, Alternate recording titles, Non-standard territory codes, Duplicate records
• Do you currently use any tools or processes for metadata enrichment or fingerprinting? Options: In-house tools, Third-party enrichment, Collection society mappings, Manual analyst cleanup, No formal tooling
• How ready is a representative sample extract (full catalog metadata + a quarter of streaming plays) to be shared? Options: Ready now, Ready within 1–2 weeks, 1 month, Needs work >1 month, Would require legal/data approvals
• If metadata cleanup were required, who in your organization would own those fixes? Options: Royalties team, Data/Metadata team, IT/Engineering, External vendor, We don't have an owner yet
• What fields do you always include in your catalog export (e.g., ISRC, ISWC, composers, splits, alternate titles)?

What Would a Convincing Side‑by‑Side Look Like?

• What exact evidence would convince you to stop the legacy process and adopt a new platform immediately?
• For a side‑by‑side test, which of the following metrics must we report back? Options: Match-rate delta vs baseline, Recovered plays & estimated revenue, Processing time per event/batch, Songwriter-level transaction visibility, Dispute reduction estimates, False positive/negative match examples
• How large should the sample be for the side‑by‑side to be considered statistically meaningful? Options: Top 1000 recordings, Top 10k by plays, Full catalog small label, Representative 1% sample, Prefer vendor recommendation
• What minimum uplift (in percent or revenue) would you need from the sample to move forward?
• Who needs to review the side‑by‑side deliverable (report, portal view, reconciliation) before we schedule a decision call? Options: Head of Royalties, CFO/Finance, IT lead, Legal, Head of Artist Relations, Other
• Which formats would you prefer for the side‑by‑side results (dashboard access, PDF report, raw CSVs for reconciliation)? Options: Dashboard portal access, PDF executive summary, Raw CSV / spreadsheets, Interactive walkthrough call, All of the above

People, Change & What Adoption Really Costs

• When teams have been asked to move off spreadsheets and legacy tools, what fears or objections surface most often? Options: Loss of control, Data accuracy concerns, Job security/redundant roles, Learning new tools, Integration complexity, Other
• Who will need training, and what level of hands-on support would make them comfortable during cutover? Options: Royalties analysts - deep training, Finance - reconciliation training, IT - integration docs, Business users - overview only, We need a train-the-trainer approach
• How long of a parallel-run with your legacy system would make stakeholders comfortable? Options: 1 pay cycle, 2–3 cycles, 3–6 cycles, 6+ cycles, Depends on results
• What internal communications or change management steps would help reduce resistance?
• Who in your organization will be responsible for ongoing governance after cutover (e.g., split-rule updates, data quality), and do they have capacity? Options: Royalties team, Data team, Hybrid committee, No owner assigned yet

Hard Constraints, Deal-Breakers & Non-Negotiables

• What's an absolute deal-breaker for this engagement — something that would make you stop the project immediately? Options: Unable to meet confidentiality/security standards, No measurable uplift in sample, Inability to integrate with key platforms, Unacceptable commercial terms, Other
• Are there regulatory, legal, or royalty‑sharing rules we must honor that could block certain automated matching approaches? Options: Yes — specific regulatory constraints, Yes — contractual obligations, No known constraints, Unsure
• Do you have a hard deadline that cannot be moved (e.g., valuation cut-off, audit report date, contract renewal)? If so, when? Options: Within 2 weeks, Within 1 month, 1–3 months, 3–6 months, No fixed deadline
• What is your budget posture for a discovery + side-by-side engagement (covers ingestion, enrichment, and reporting)? Options: Budget already allocated, Budget under review, Need to secure approval, Exploring options / unsure
• If we surface unexpected complexities (e.g., third-party format, missing splits), how much time and budget flexibility do you have to address them? Options: Significant flexibility, Moderate flexibility, Very limited, None

Agreeing the First Sprint — What Should Happen Next

• If we agreed to a short proof (30–90 days), what three deliverables would make that sprint a success for you?
• Which stakeholders do we need on the kickoff call, and which decision-makers must be invited to the final demo? Options: Head of Royalties, CFO/Finance, IT lead, Legal, Senior Exec/Board rep, Other
• When would you be able to provide the sample catalog and a representative quarter of play data? Options: Immediately, Within 1–2 weeks, 2–4 weeks, 1+ months, Need approvals
• What level of portal access would you want during the side‑by‑side (view-only, analyst sandbox, full export rights)? Options: View-only dashboard, Analyst sandbox with exports, Full data export rights, Custom per-role access
• How do you prefer we communicate progress during the sprint (weekly calls, daily Slack updates, milestone emails)? Options: Weekly calls + email summary, Daily Slack channel, Biweekly demos, Ad-hoc as needed
• Any immediate concerns or obstacles we should know now so we can plan around them?