unrecouped advances

On Monday (Dec. 19), Sony Music Entertainment (SME) shared a recap with the company’s artists and earnings participants on the progress of its Artists Forward initiative, which encompasses SME’s legacy unrecouped balances initiative, healthcare assistance, advances on projected earnings and more.

Notably, the recap offers never-before-reported stats on Sony Music’s artist portal and real-time insights platforms. Introduced in 2019, the features offer music creators and their teams “best-in-class” payment capabilities and real-time updates on consumption of their music and audience engagement data. According to the company, artists and other earnings participants have withdrawn nearly $50 million combined from both the cash-out feature, which allows users to cash out payable monthly account balances, and the real-time advances feature, which allows users to receive advances on qualifying projected earnings.

Newly announced as part of the recap is Sony Music’s recent introduction of healthcare advocacy services for on-roster and legacy artists in the United States, designed to make it easier for artists to navigate the process of obtaining and utilizing healthcare coverage, finding a doctor, managing healthcare bills and more. Since launching in the fall, the program has helped U.S.-based artists realize hundreds of thousands of dollars in healthcare cost savings, according to the company.

The label first introduced the Artists Forward initiative in June 2021 with its legacy unrecouped balance program, which waives the unrecouped balances of artists who signed to Sony Music prior to 2000 and have not received advances since that same year. The following month, the program was expanded to include songwriters, and this past May, Sony Music began offering eligibility on a rolling 20-year basis — meaning artists not initially covered by the program will become eligible once they hit the 20-year mark of signing with the label. According to the Dec. 19 recap, eligibility notifications recently began going out to the first group of qualifying artists and participants under the new criteria (those who signed with the label prior to 2001) in select markets around the world.

In September 2021, the company further expanded Artists Forward by launching “Artist Assistance,” an initiative covering mental health services for its artist roster. According to the Dec. 19 recap, over 100 artists globally have since been provided with information and support related to the program, with dozens across more than 12 countries having utilized these services to establish recurring sessions with a licensed therapist or receive in-the-moment support to deal with “acute issues.”

You can read the full recap here.