Phone-signed split sheets and royalty registration for Indian co-writers
TL;DR Quillsplit lets independent Indian songwriters, lyricists and producers agree who owns what share of a song before they leave the studio, sign it on their phones, and then file the same data with IPRS and their distributor. Artists pay a small yearly fee, and the payoff is royalties that actually reach every co-writer.
Indian songwriting money is growing. IPRS paid more than ₹600 Cr to its members in FY2024-25, up from ₹500 Cr the year before, with streaming supplying over 70% of royalties[1]. One music-distribution firm reported IPRS income of ₹700 Cr for the same year[2]. The gap is likely income versus payouts, so check IPRS's own report. Either way, that money only reaches people whose works are registered with the right shares.
Independent sessions often end with a chat message instead of a signed split, and the fights only start once a track earns. Since 2012, Indian lyricists and composers keep a royalty right that can pass only to heirs or a copyright society[3], so getting the paperwork right matters more than in most countries.
The seed proposed a cloud studio with blockchain rights tracking. I kept the goal and dropped the chain. In India, who collects performance royalties is set by law and by IPRS membership, and a token ledger does not change that, and a startup that licenses or collects music would run into the 2025 Delhi High Court ruling that such business must go through a registered society[4].
So Quillsplit is just the paperwork layer. At the end of a session, one person opens a song, adds collaborators by phone number, and proposes shares for lyrics, composition and the recording. Each person accepts with an OTP. The app produces a dated split sheet in English and Hindi, then exports registration data in the format IPRS and common distributors ask for, and reminds each writer whose registration is still missing. It never touches royalty money.
Users and payers are the same people - independent writers, producers and small labels. A yearly plan per artist, priced like a mid-tier distribution plan, is the base. Small labels and studios that run many sessions pay a per-seat plan so every session ends with a signed sheet. Distributors are a later channel, bundling Quillsplit into their own plans.
IPRS payouts rose from ₹500 Cr to over ₹600 Cr in one year[1], so unregistered shares now cost real money. Court rulings in 2025 and 2026 have also made writers and labels more alert to who holds which right[4]. Every collaborator now has a phone with UPI-grade OTP login, so signing at the session is easy.
There is no public count of independent songwriters in India. The firmest signal is the royalty pool, with over ₹600 Cr distributed by IPRS in FY2024-25[1]. That's a neighbour, not your revenue. Your market is the subset of writers who co-write outside label contracts and want their share paid. IPRS cites more than 8,200 members[1], a floor rather than a ceiling.
One global distributor's splits feature divides streaming and download income among collaborators, free on its higher tiers[5]. Publishing-administration services collect royalties worldwide for writers who sign up[6]. Both work downstream of the deal, splitting or collecting money once shares are known.
Neither targets the Indian session moment, Indian languages, or IPRS registration as the core job. I found no Indian tool doing this, though my search was limited.
| Difficulty | Moderate (36/100) |
| Starting capital | ₹40–75 L |
| Time to launch | 4–6 months |
The app is simple. The hard parts are distribution and trust. Writers adopt tools their peers already use, so you need a few respected producers and studios to make it the default. You also need a clean legal template, because a badly drafted split sheet is worse than none at all.
No sector licence, as long as Quillsplit records agreements and never licenses music or collects royalties.
Building this outside India? The categories above usually have a local equivalent, so check with your own regulator.
Don't let AI propose who deserves what share. That's a negotiation between people, and the legal wording should always come from a lawyer's template.
Want to work out the AI layer for Quillsplit? Talk to Yash →
I like this as a small business for someone from the independent music scene who already knows studios and producers. If you want a fintech or a token then skip it. Prove first that 200 writers will sign sheets at real sessions, and that 20% of them pay after a free trial.
Expect roughly ₹40–75 L, mostly on the app, a lawyer-drafted template and getting producers and studios to use it.
Not if you only record agreements. Licensing music or collecting royalties should go through a registered copyright society, so Quillsplit stays a paperwork tool.
Yes, and split tools from global distributors already exist abroad. Your edge would need to be local language support and the local society's registration format.
The free Quillsplit validation kit has the line-by-line capital breakdown, the effort scoring, the copyright and data checklist, a 14-day validation sprint with pass/fail targets, a 90-day launch plan, 10 interview questions for writers and studios, and 5 assumptions to test. Download the kit →
Thinking about building Quillsplit or something close to it? The make-or-break work is getting studios to treat a signed split as the normal end of every session, and that's the kind of habit change I help founders plan. If you need a hand, you know where to find me. Talk to Yash →
For illustration only. Names are fictional and ideas hypothetical; sourced facts are real but may be out of date. Nothing here is legal, financial or professional advice, and Yash Khatri is not personally liable for any use of it. Read the full disclaimer.