Music technology development

The music industry runs on rights, royalties, and relationships. The software underneath it needs to handle licensing complexity, catalog scale, and financial accuracy that generic platforms weren't built for.

We build music technology software: streaming platforms with catalog management and rights enforcement, royalty calculation systems with per-stream accuracy, distribution pipelines to DSPs, and artist and label portals with real-time reporting.

  • Streaming platform architecture built for catalog scale and territory licensing

  • Rights and royalty management with accurate per-stream calculation

  • Digital distribution infrastructure for multi-DSP delivery

  • Artist and label portals with real-time reporting

What you can count on

Retention

3+ years

Average client relationship across active accounts

First milestone

Week 1

A straight read on what to keep and what to rebuild

Pricing

Fixed price

Scope and cost agreed before work starts

Team

No handoffs

The senior engineers who scope the build also ship it

4.9
on Clutch
See our work

The problem

Sound familiar?

  • Running a streaming platform that can't handle catalog scale or licensing complexity?

  • Royalty reporting that still runs on spreadsheets and takes weeks to reconcile?

Short answer

RaftLabs builds custom music technology software for labels, distributors, and streaming platforms: catalog and rights management, digital distribution pipelines to DSPs, royalty calculation and reporting, and artist and label portals. A first module launches as a working v1 in 10 to 14 weeks, starting around $25K to $45K, then grows into a full platform.

Trusted by

Vodafone logo
Aldi logo
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Energia Rewards logo
GE logo
Bank of America logo
T-Mobile logo
Valero logo
Techstars logo
East Ventures logo
TuneClub logo
Practice sessions logged in TuneClub's first 60 days
200+
Creator feedback reviews in that same window
120+
From concept to TuneClub's working v1
12 wk
RaftLabs rating on Clutch
4.9/5

Music tech software built for the actual complexity of the industry

Generic software platforms are built for average use cases. Music businesses aren't average. Licensing rules change by territory. Royalty splits differ by release, by deal, and by revenue type. Catalog metadata is messy and incomplete. A platform built for a media company or a SaaS business will bend until it breaks when you apply music industry rules to it.

Custom music technology software is scoped around your specific rights structure, your catalog, your deal types, and your distribution requirements. It handles the edge cases that break generic platforms because it was designed knowing those edge cases exist.

Problems we solve in music technology

  1. 01
    Problem

    Royalty reconciliation running on spreadsheets and taking two to four weeks every statement cycle

    Solution

    Manual royalty reconciliation from multiple DSP reports in different formats, applied to deal terms stored in a separate spreadsheet, produces statements that take weeks and contain errors that rights holders can detect and dispute. According to Armanino LLP, drawing on approximately 6,000 royalty audits conducted since 1971, up to 95% of royalties self-reported by record labels, publishers, and studios are inaccurate, with typical audits recovering 10-30% in additional payments. A royalty management system that ingests DSP data, applies your specific deal terms, and generates statements automatically reduces the process from weeks to hours. It also produces a calculation audit trail that's defensible.

  2. 02
    Problem

    Streaming platform built on general media infrastructure that can't enforce territory-specific music licensing

    Solution

    General media streaming infrastructure doesn't implement per-territory rights enforcement at the stream level. For music, a track licensed in the US but not in Germany must not play for a German listener. That check must happen at playback time, every time. Retrofitting licensing logic onto a platform not designed for it creates gaps. Those gaps result in licensing violations with real financial exposure.

  3. 03
    Problem

    DSP delivery blocked or delayed because metadata doesn't meet individual platform requirements

    Solution

    Each DSP has its own metadata format requirements: ISRC codes, genre taxonomies, artwork specifications, release date rules. A distribution pipeline that doesn't validate against these requirements before delivery produces rejections and delays that push release dates back. A distribution platform with per-DSP validation built in catches metadata errors before submission rather than days after.

  4. 04
    Problem

    Artists have no visibility into streaming performance until the monthly statement arrives

    Solution

    When artists wait a month for a PDF statement to understand how their release is performing, they can't make decisions about promotion, social content, or release timing while the window is still open. An artist portal with real-time streaming data from connected DSPs gives artists the numbers while they can still act on them.

What we build

  1. Music streaming platform development

    We build custom streaming platforms that handle catalog ingestion, audio delivery, licensing enforcement, playlist logic, and subscription billing. The architecture is designed for catalog scale: tens of thousands to millions of tracks, with rights rules applied per stream and per territory. Whether you need a white-label consumer product, a B2B sync licensing portal, or a private catalog streaming tool, the platform is built around your rights model, not retrofitted from a generic video platform.

  2. Digital music distribution software

    We build distribution platforms that deliver releases to DSPs at scale: Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, and other major stores, with metadata management, ISRC and UPC handling, release scheduling, and territory controls. Revenue reports from each store come back in different formats. We build the aggregation layer that normalizes all of it into one consistent report your team can act on.

  3. Royalty and rights management

    Royalty calculations in music aren't simple. Master royalties, publishing royalties, neighboring rights, sync fees, and mechanical royalties all have different rules. We build systems that ingest usage data, apply your specific deal terms and royalty splits, and generate statements your rights holders can verify. The calculation logic is transparent and auditable, not locked in a black box.

  4. Artist management software

    We build artist management portals where labels and managers track releases, royalty statements, advances, recoupment positions, and deal terms in one place. Artists get a self-service view of their earnings and release status. Labels get reporting across their roster without pulling data from five different systems. The access model is role-based so artists see what they need and nothing they shouldn't.

  5. Music label management tools

    Label management software needs to connect A&R tracking, release scheduling, contract management, royalty accounting, and financial reporting. We build label platforms that bring these together without forcing your team to work in a tool designed for a different kind of media company. The system is built around your catalog structure, your deal types, and your reporting requirements.

  6. Music analytics and reporting

    Streaming data arrives fragmented, delayed, and in formats that differ by platform. We build analytics layers that ingest data from all your sources, normalize it, and surface the reporting your team needs: track performance by territory, release trend analysis, royalty revenue by rights holder, and distribution efficiency metrics. The data is yours, in one place, in a format you can use.

Where to start

Build in sequence, not all at once

Most music companies fix their sharpest operational pain first, then expand. This is the order we usually recommend, and where the cost lands.

Start

Royalty and rights engine

Fix the statements first. This is where wrong numbers directly damage rights-holder trust, so it is the highest-leverage module to ship as a working v1.

  • First module, around $25K to $45K
  • Working v1 in 10 to 14 weeks

Expand

Distribution pipeline

Once accounting is trustworthy, take control of delivery: per-DSP metadata validation, ISRC and UPC handling, and normalized revenue reporting back from every store.

  • Multi-DSP delivery and ingestion
  • Added onto the platform in phases

Scale

Streaming platform

A consumer or B2B streaming product with per-stream, per-territory rights enforcement is the largest build. Scope it once the catalog and rights model are proven.

  • Grows into six figures
  • Scoped by catalog size and DSP integrations
Every band is fixed-cost and agreed before work starts. You do not commit to the full platform to get value from the first module.

How we work with music technology clients

  1. 01

    Discovery

    We review your deal types, royalty structures, catalog scale, and distribution requirements. We identify the specific calculation edge cases and metadata standards that apply to your operation before we commit to an architecture or a price.
  2. 02

    Architecture

    We design the royalty calculation engine, data ingestion pipeline, and rights enforcement logic around your specific deal terms and catalog structure. The data model is documented before development starts so your team can validate it against known statement outputs.
  3. 03

    Build

    We build the calculation engine first and validate it against real historical data: known inputs producing known outputs. Then we build the reporting layer on top. DSP integrations are built and tested against each platform's sandbox before connecting to production.
  4. 04

    Launch and support

    We support migration of catalog data and historical royalty records, train the team on the admin and reporting interfaces, and provide documentation of the calculation logic so your finance team can audit it independently. A post-launch support window covers edge cases that surface with full catalog scale.

Where music tech is heading

Streaming already drives most of the money. Streaming made up 67.3% of global recorded-music revenue in 2023, and total revenue grew 10.2% to $28.6 billion that year (IFPI Global Music Report, 2024). As more of that revenue flows through per-stream, per-territory accounting, the operational weight shifts from getting music onto platforms to counting it correctly once it is there.

That changes what music software has to do. Royalty accuracy stops being a monthly batch job and becomes a continuous process. Statements recalculate as new DSP data lands. Metadata gets validated before delivery rather than corrected after a rejection. Rights checks hold up under audit. The teams who win the next few years treat rights, royalties, and metadata as live systems, not spreadsheets reconciled after the fact.

We build for that direction. Royalty engines that re-run as fresh usage data arrives, distribution pipelines that catch metadata errors before submission, and an audit trail your finance team can verify independently. The goal is software that stays accurate as your catalog and your DSP footprint keep growing.

Frequently asked questions

Music businesses deal with licensing rules, royalty structures, and metadata standards that most software platforms weren't built to handle. Territory-based rights enforcement, per-stream royalty calculations across multiple rights holders, and multi-DSP metadata delivery all require logic that generic platforms approximate rather than implement correctly. The errors compound over time. Incorrect royalty statements, metadata mismatches at DSPs, and licensing violations are all downstream consequences of software that wasn't built for the actual complexity. Custom software handles your specific deal types and rights structure from the start.

Royalty statements are financial documents. Rights holders compare them against their own records and against DSP reports. Errors, even small ones, erode trust and create disputes that cost more to resolve than the original error was worth. A royalty system needs to apply your deal terms exactly, handle edge cases like multi-territory splits and catalog recoupment correctly, and produce an audit trail that shows how every figure was calculated. We build the calculation engine to be deterministic and testable so you can verify it against known figures before it goes live.

Yes. Streaming platform architecture for large catalogs requires decisions at the infrastructure level: how tracks are stored, how audio is delivered, how metadata is indexed for search and discovery, and how rights checks are applied at playback time without adding latency. We design for catalog scale from the start rather than building for small catalogs and hoping it holds. Delivery uses adaptive bitrate streaming via CDN. Rights enforcement is applied server-side per stream. Catalog indexing uses search infrastructure designed for the query patterns a streaming platform generates.

It depends on where your biggest operational pain is. If you're a label or distributor and your royalty statements are wrong or take weeks to produce, fix royalty management first. Errors here affect your relationships with rights holders directly. If you're delivering music to DSPs and losing time to manual metadata correction and fragmented revenue reporting, build a distribution platform. If you have a streaming use case that existing platforms can't support: rights enforcement requirements, catalog size, or white-label needs, build the streaming platform. We scope the problem before recommending where to start.

Case studies

Music case study

Gabe Moynagh
Gabe Moynagh
Ireland
CEO, TuneClub

RaftLabs excelled in contemporary UI and delivered better high-fidelity wireframes. The team is culturally very strong, and they take a lot of pride in the quality of their work.

Phygital music learning platform for Irish musicians
Practice sessions logged in the first 60 days200+
Creator feedback reviews in the first 60 days120+
From concept to working v112 weeks
View case study

Related services

Talk to us about your music technology project.

Tell us what you're building, where your current tools are breaking down, and what scale you're planning for. We'll scope a solution built around your specific requirements.

  • Scope and cost agreed before work starts. No surprises. No obligation.
  • Working prototype within 3 weeks of kickoff.
  • Pay by milestone. You see progress before each invoice.
  • 60-day post-launch warranty. Bug fixes, UI tweaks, and deployment support. No retainer.
  • All conversations are NDA-protected.

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