Fox Concepts
the royalty companion for digital natives
Embracing the digital age
We just asked ourselves some very simple questions: What if a new entertainment company starts its business in the year 2016? What kind of royalty rules would be taken into consideration? Where does all royalty relevant information come from?
It is clear that the possibilities of independent companies have grown tremendously in the past years. At the same time, the administrative challenges have shifted. We learned from our more than 300 customers that - if the possibility exists - they always try to streamline and simplify all business operations, including royalty administration.
Fox has been created to offer modern, digital native companies the power they need for their royalty administration today - without the overhead of historical complexities. We can sum up the main concept of Fox in two words: Power and Simplicity.
Royalty Engine
Power
Fox can handle multiple accounts per asset and bundles can be made of assets with different accounts. All accounts are pro-rated equally, when setting up assets and bundles, but all shares can be adapted manually for full control when necessary.
This brings full support for compilations, electronic music (remixers) and other special products.
When building bundles, the royalty accounts are automatically connected through the assets being used. But Fox also offers the possibility to add accounts directly to a bundle. So a party can be paid for each bundle sale, independently from the assets: e.g. a designer for doing the cover artwork, a compiler for building the playlist, etc.
Fox can handle multiple accounts per asset and bundles can be made of assets with different accounts. All accounts are pro-rated equally, when setting up assets and bundles, but all shares can be adapted manually for full control when necessary.
This brings full support for compilations, electronic music (remixers) and other special products.
When building bundles, the royalty accounts are automatically connected through the assets being used. But Fox also offers the possibility to add accounts directly to a bundle. So a party can be paid for each bundle sale, independently from the assets: e.g. a designer for doing the cover artwork, a compiler for building the playlist, etc.
Sales Ingestion
Power
Fox is prepared for the unexpected. All necessary sales reports can be imported into the system and are then processed by the identification engine: EANs, UPCs, ISRCs, ISBNs - you name it. When a sales line does not match any known asset, the user will be guided through an "error resolve" procedure.
During this workflow the user can either add new, previously unknown reference numbers to an existing item of your catalog or even create a new bundle or asset on-the-fly. Problems resolved that way will not come up again, as the system is constantly learning.
So while previous royalty systems (including ours) demanded for a complete and orderly managed metadata catalog and contract system before importing sales, Fox is using a much more dynamic, fluid approach.
As soon as we talk "user generated content" - like on Youtube - the reported references would always be a surprise for a regular royalty system. Not for Fox.
Fox is prepared for the unexpected. All necessary sales reports can be imported into the system and are then processed by the identification engine: EANs, UPCs, ISRCs, ISBNs - you name it. When a sales line does not match any known asset, the user will be guided through an "error resolve" procedure.
During this workflow the user can either add new, previously unknown reference numbers to an existing item of your catalog or even create a new bundle or asset on-the-fly. Problems resolved that way will not come up again, as the system is constantly learning.
So while previous royalty systems (including ours) demanded for a complete and orderly managed metadata catalog and contract system before importing sales, Fox is using a much more dynamic, fluid approach.
As soon as we talk "user generated content" - like on Youtube - the reported references would always be a surprise for a regular royalty system. Not for Fox.
Big Data
Power
Fox is based on the lates FileMaker technology. Technically, the software can ingest sales reports of any size as there is no file size limit. Practically, a modern desktop computer has its limits and can not compete with huge, ten thousand dollar server computers.
But Fox was build with speed in mind. The internals are optimized for fast identification of sales lines by using a single database for reference numbers to match against. So the system does not have to switch between a bundle and an asset database.
The royalty engine is mainly based on a super-fast import process, where statement lines are not generated programmatically (slow with any database), but copied from the sales database. Calculations are only done once and saved results are shown.
Finally, statement documents are generated once and available forever, without the need of additional processing power to generate and view them.
To keep a desktop database system like Fox clean and snappy, we included an archive function, so users can move data out of the way, when it is not needed for royalty processing anymore. The archived data is still available and searchable, when the need arises.
Fox is based on the lates FileMaker technology. Technically, the software can ingest sales reports of any size as there is no file size limit. Practically, a modern desktop computer has its limits and can not compete with huge, ten thousand dollar server computers.
But Fox was build with speed in mind. The internals are optimized for fast identification of sales lines by using a single database for reference numbers to match against. So the system does not have to switch between a bundle and an asset database.
The royalty engine is mainly based on a super-fast import process, where statement lines are not generated programmatically (slow with any database), but copied from the sales database. Calculations are only done once and saved results are shown.
Finally, statement documents are generated once and available forever, without the need of additional processing power to generate and view them.
To keep a desktop database system like Fox clean and snappy, we included an archive function, so users can move data out of the way, when it is not needed for royalty processing anymore. The archived data is still available and searchable, when the need arises.
Simplicity
Users can build a running royalty system with a simple import of metadata. During the import, the necessary accounts will be created on the fly by using existing metadata information, like: Arist, Title, RefNo, Label.
While account groups are used to group royalties from multiple accounts, Fox also features a simplified mode, where an account equals an account group. This comes handy if you want to generally issue one royalty statement per release.
During the statement creation all necessary files are generated for you on-the-fly: PDF, Excel, CSV. These files can be opened and emailed from the statement entry, directly.
Users can build a running royalty system with a simple import of metadata. During the import, the necessary accounts will be created on the fly by using existing metadata information, like: Arist, Title, RefNo, Label.
While account groups are used to group royalties from multiple accounts, Fox also features a simplified mode, where an account equals an account group. This comes handy if you want to generally issue one royalty statement per release.
During the statement creation all necessary files are generated for you on-the-fly: PDF, Excel, CSV. These files can be opened and emailed from the statement entry, directly.
Simplicity
Sales reports can be ingested in any currency. Fox will convert reports into your home currency, based on the rules you want. Current exchange rates are retrieved online automatically and are ready to use.
But more importantly, users can enter the real amount of money they received in their home currency for a foreign currency report and Fox will adapt every single sales line accordingly. Because the incoming amount may not only depend on an exchange rate, but also bank and other transaction fees.
Fox is very capable of identifying every sales line with some clever logic. If a reference number does not match or is even missing, Fox will do a full text search to identify an item.
If the search result is unmistakable, the user does not have to interact. If the search result offers multiple matches, the user just has to make a simple choice. If all measures do not lead to a result, the "error resolve" procedure kicks in (see on the left).
Sales reports can be ingested in any currency. Fox will convert reports into your home currency, based on the rules you want. Current exchange rates are retrieved online automatically and are ready to use.
But more importantly, users can enter the real amount of money they received in their home currency for a foreign currency report and Fox will adapt every single sales line accordingly. Because the incoming amount may not only depend on an exchange rate, but also bank and other transaction fees.
Fox is very capable of identifying every sales line with some clever logic. If a reference number does not match or is even missing, Fox will do a full text search to identify an item.
If the search result is unmistakable, the user does not have to interact. If the search result offers multiple matches, the user just has to make a simple choice. If all measures do not lead to a result, the "error resolve" procedure kicks in (see on the left).
Simplicity
The digital marketplace is a great opportunity for entertainment companies. But it also involves rather small companies with no IT staff or knowledge into dealing with big data.
Fox has been created to allow mere mortals the use of big data with a desktop software they can actually own. We followed two main concepts to keep away the hassle of big data from people that are rather focussed on creativity than tech-stuff: Streamlining incoming information and compression.
Fox is built to be an interface between big data that digital outlets produce and the user's business reality. As entertainment companies try to simplify their royalty administration, it is obvious that the incoming information is more complex and rich than actually needed.
So Fox focusses on streamlining information: While each sales report line often shows individual countries, the user may just want to separate "Americas", "Europe" and "Asia". Digital music outlets can report "high quality streams", "subscription income" and many other sales types, while a royalty manager to just needs to focus on "downloads" and "streams" on a royalty statement.
Fox translates all this information during the import process. When new, unknown definitions (e.g. a new sales type) arise, the user can easily teach Fox how to use this information, without interrupting the import process.
At the same time, the data set can be reduced (compressed), e.g. by combining 5 different "streaming" sales types into just one.
The digital marketplace is a great opportunity for entertainment companies. But it also involves rather small companies with no IT staff or knowledge into dealing with big data.
Fox has been created to allow mere mortals the use of big data with a desktop software they can actually own. We followed two main concepts to keep away the hassle of big data from people that are rather focussed on creativity than tech-stuff: Streamlining incoming information and compression.
Fox is built to be an interface between big data that digital outlets produce and the user's business reality. As entertainment companies try to simplify their royalty administration, it is obvious that the incoming information is more complex and rich than actually needed.
So Fox focusses on streamlining information: While each sales report line often shows individual countries, the user may just want to separate "Americas", "Europe" and "Asia". Digital music outlets can report "high quality streams", "subscription income" and many other sales types, while a royalty manager to just needs to focus on "downloads" and "streams" on a royalty statement.
Fox translates all this information during the import process. When new, unknown definitions (e.g. a new sales type) arise, the user can easily teach Fox how to use this information, without interrupting the import process.
At the same time, the data set can be reduced (compressed), e.g. by combining 5 different "streaming" sales types into just one.
Get Fox today and let your new
royalty companion do the hard work
Fox is based on the latest FileMaker technology and runs on:
macOS 10.12-10.14
Windows 7-10 (pro editions)
macOS 10.12-10.14
Windows 7-10 (pro editions)
Need more power? Check out RPX (Royalty Producer X
Our new flagship product Royalty Producer X covers even complex contract scenarios and will also be available as a client/server system later this year.
About Us
OFFICER Solutions was born in 1996. Since 2004 we deploy our royalty solutions to a growing international user base. Our customers are located in the Americas, Europe and Asia. We cultivate personal relationships with our user base and our customers have a direct influence on our work.