Ortpur is a UK music publisher specialising in royalty recovery. We find money owed to artists and rights-holders — revenue skipped from distributions, income held in suspense accounts — and recover it on their behalf.
Scope & authorityWe act only on documented rights-holder authority and only within the territory or list of works set by the written mandate.
SignalUsage found
BreakIncome stopped
ResolutionRoute restored
The Royalty Trace follows publishing income from use through matching, claiming and distribution to payment. A broken route is identified and restored.
01
Skipped revenue, identified
We find where earned income stopped, and why.
02
Suspense accounts, searched
We trace unmatched and unclaimed money at collection societies.
03
Recovered on your behalf
Ownership evidenced, claims filed and followed through.
01 / THE PROBLEM
Where income goes missing
Publishing income moves through use reports, registrations, matching systems, claims and distributions. A small break at any hand-off can leave money unmatched, unclaimed, misallocated or simply skipped.
Royalty trace / failure mapActive exception
Exception 01
Unmatched
The usage is reported, but identifiers or titles do not connect the recording to the correct work.
Interactive Royalty Trace showing where publishing income can become unmatched, unclaimed, blocked by a registration gap, misallocated, held or disputed, or skipped.
01Unmatched+
Usage exists, but identifiers or titles do not connect the recording to the correct work.
02Unclaimed+
The work is visible, but no valid claim has connected the controlled share to the rights-holder.
03Registration gap+
A missing, incomplete or conflicting registration prevents a clean route to matching and payment.
04Misallocated+
The route completes, but a wrong share, party or territory directs the income elsewhere.
05Held or disputed+
The income is identified but held while authority, ownership or conflicting claims are resolved.
06Skipped+
A distribution should include the work or share, but passes it by.
02 / THE PROCESS
Recovery is a chain of evidence
Recovery is methodical, not speculative. Every claim is grounded in evidence of ownership and use, and filed with the society or organisation that controls the money.
Royalty trace / recovery state01–04
Stage 01 / ScopeDefine the mandate
The territory, works, rights, term and basis are set before recovery begins.
The Royalty Trace moves through four recovery stages: define the mandate, discover, evidence and claim, then recover and report.
01
Define the mandate
Territory-wide or track-by-track — the agreement sets exactly what we look at, where, and on what basis. Nothing is pursued outside it.
02
Discover
We audit statements and society data, compare usage against income, identify skipped revenue and search suspense pools for money that belongs to you.
03
Evidence and claim
Ownership is documented, registrations corrected where needed, and claims filed with the society holding the money — then followed through to resolution.
04
Recover and report
Recovered income is paid through, with clear reporting on what was found, what was claimed and what was collected.
03 / ENGAGEMENT
A mandate with defined edges
Recovery is shaped around the catalogue and the problem. Both models run under a written agreement that defines scope, term and commission basis.
Geographic mandate
One territory, swept thoroughly
Every relevant collection point within a defined market is reviewed — distributions, suspense holdings and registration records — across the catalogue in scope.
Defined works mandate
Selected-works recordMandate 02
Work AControlled shareSelected
Work BControlled shareSelected
Work C—Outside scope
A defined list of works
Specific works or recordings are ring-fenced for recovery — useful for known problems, a particular project or a focused first engagement.
The agreement sets the basis.Territories, works, rights, term and commission are set out in writing before recovery work begins.
Recovery assessmentIf income has stopped somewhere along the route, we can find where it stopped.
Recovery works best on a well-kept catalogue. Ortpur provides the publishing administration layer that keeps the route to future income clear.
01 / REGISTER
Work registration
Writer shares, publisher shares, titles and identifiers registered and maintained with collection societies.
02 / COLLECT
Royalty collection
Performance and mechanical income collected with attention to delayed and incomplete streams.
03 / ORGANISE
Catalogue management
Ownership, registrations, amendments and royalty history kept clear enough to act on.
04 / ALIGN
Rights and metadata
Names, alternative titles, splits and identifiers reviewed for errors that quietly become lost income.
05 / RESOLVE
Society liaison
Queries, corrections and registration updates handled with the organisations that distribute revenue.
06 / REVIEW
Income review
Statements checked against expected activity so gaps and bad matches are found early.
05 / ABOUT ORTPUR
A forensic hand on the catalogue
Ortpur is a United Kingdom music publisher specialising in royalty recovery — finding money owed to artists and rights-holders and recovering it on their behalf — alongside the registration, administration and collection work that keeps catalogues earning properly.
We work across UK, US and international collection societies. The approach is practical and evidence-led: make the works clear, find where the money stopped, claim it from the organisation holding it, and keep the records right so it does not go missing again.
01
Defined authorityEvery action sits inside an agreed mandate.
02
Evidence before claimOwnership, use and entitlement are made clear.
03
Resolution at sourceThe claim goes to the organisation controlling the money.
04
A clear recordWhat was found, filed and recovered remains legible.
06 / QUESTIONS
Asked, answered
The questions rights-holders usually ask before starting a recovery conversation.
What is royalty recovery?+
Royalty recovery is the process of finding music royalties that were earned but never paid to the rights-holder, then claiming them from the society or organisation holding the money. It covers income held in suspense accounts, unmatched royalties and revenue skipped from distributions.
What is a suspense account?+
A suspense account is where a collection society holds royalties it has collected but cannot yet pay out, usually because the work or the rights-holder has not been identified. The money waits until a valid claim matches it to its owner; after a set period it may be released back into general distributions.
Can royalties be recovered for one territory only?+
Yes. A recovery mandate can be geographic — covering a single territory such as the United States — or it can cover several territories. The agreement defines exactly where Ortpur looks and what it recovers.
Can you recover royalties for specific tracks only?+
Yes. Recovery can run track-by-track against a defined list of works or recordings, as well as catalogue-wide. Scope, term and commission basis are all set out in the agreement.
Recovery assessment
Trace what should have reached you.
Tell us about the catalogue, territory or works in question. We will tell you plainly whether a recovery mandate makes sense — and what it would cover.
The Royalty Trace reconnects a broken income route and completes at payment.info@ortpur.com