Checks royalty statements for small Indian labels and files claims for gaps
TL;DR Recouply reads the royalty statements a small label or songwriter already gets, matches them against the catalogue and known plays, and flags tracks that earned nothing when they should have. Then it files claims in the owner's name. Labels pay a share of what's recovered, so trying it costs them very little.
Royalty money in India is growing fast. IPRS paid out over ₹600 crore in FY2024-25, its highest ever, and streaming now makes up more than 70% of what it collects[1]. That money only reaches writers whose works are registered and correctly matched, and IPRS has just over 8,200 members who shared ₹1,000 crore across three years[1].
The law has moved in writers' favour too. In May 2026 the Calcutta High Court confirmed that authors keep a right to share royalties whenever a recording is used outside cinemas, and that labels can't license those underlying works alone[2].
Not everything is hunky-dory though. Disputes over unpaid money drag on for years, and IPRS filed a police complaint in 2019 alleging that over ₹100 crore of members' royalties had been collected without authority[3]. Who checks a small label's statements line by line? Usually nobody.
Recouply is a reconciliation service with software underneath. A label uploads its catalogue, its distributor statements and its society statements, and Recouply matches every recording code and work to every line. Then it shows three lists -
Its staff then prepare and file the claims and registrations in the client's own name.
The seed wanted to sell song shares as NFTs, and I dropped that. NFTs count as virtual digital assets in India, taxed at 30% with no loss set-off and 1% TDS on transfers[4], which makes fan token trading costly and messy. The real problem is leakage, not a shortage of investors, so Recouply fixes the leak.
It acts as an auditor and agent, not a collecting body. Collecting royalties on behalf of many owners is reserved for registered copyright societies, so get a copyright lawyer to draw that line before you launch.
The buyers are independent labels with a few hundred to a few thousand tracks, music publishers and composers with film or ad credits. They pay a share of recovered money (I'm assuming 15–25%) and, once they trust you, a monthly fee for ongoing checks. Global publishing administrators show writers will pay an administrator to chase money they couldn't collect themselves[5], though the one I checked lists no price on its homepage.
The Calcutta High Court ruling of May 2026 strengthens composers' claims on non-cinema uses[2]. IPRS distributions rose from ₹500 crore to ₹600 crore in a single year[1], so the gap between what's owed and what's actually checked keeps widening. The largest streaming platform's own payout reporting now runs on full-year 2025 data[6], which gives labels better numbers to test statements against.
There's no public figure for unclaimed or misallocated royalties in India. The firm numbers are ₹600 crore distributed by IPRS in FY2024-25 to a membership of a little over 8,200[1]. Treat that as the pool your clients draw from and not as your market, because your revenue is a share of the gaps you find.
Global publishing administrators register songs with societies worldwide and collects publishing money for writers[5]. Large Indian labels run in-house rights teams. Distributors pay master royalties and offer dashboards, but none I checked offers an independent audit of its own statements. The gap is a neutral checker for the long tail of small labels and composers who can't afford a rights team. My search was limited, so confirm there's no local audit firm already serving them.
| Difficulty | Moderate (38/100) |
| Starting capital | ₹40–75 L |
| Time to launch | 6–9 months |
The matching software is ordinary. The hard part is data, because statements arrive in dozens of formats and recording and work codes are often missing and societies take their sweet time to respond. You also need clients to trust you with their full statements, which takes references.
Recouply needs no licence to audit statements. The line to hold is that it never collects royalties for many owners, which is a copyright society's job.
Building this outside India? The categories above usually have a local equivalent, so check with your own regulator.
Don't let AI file claims or decide who owns a work. Ownership comes from contracts, so a person checks every claim.
Want to work out the AI layer for Recouply? Talk to Yash →
Here's what can go south -
I like this one a lot more than the NFT version. If you've worked in a label's rights or finance team and know the statement formats then it's a strong fit. If you were hoping to build a token marketplace then it isn't for you.
Prove one thing first - that ten small catalogues hold recoverable money worth at least ₹50,000 each.
Plan for about ₹40–75 L over 6–9 months, mostly matching software and staff who know how statements and claims work.
No licence to audit and file in the client's name. Collecting royalties for many owners is a copyright society's role, so get legal advice before you go near it.
Yes, global publishing administrators already do royalty work across many countries. Each market has its own societies and rules, so learn those before you file claims.
The free Recouply 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 labels and composers, and 5 assumptions to test. Download the kit →
Thinking about building Recouply or something close to it? The make-or-break work is showing that small catalogues hold enough missing money to pay for the audit, and that's the kind of thing I help founders with. 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.