Different Industries—One Powerful Royalties Management Software Solution
MetaComet® Systems has been laser focused on solving an extremely specific revenue sharing problem for over 25 years. Our customers—in the book publishing, biotechnology, entertainment, and other industries—know that no other software company understands royalties the way we do.
We’ve helped companies in the following industries leverage the power of our specialized software:
Entertainment and Streaming Video
Video Games
Consumer Product Licensing
The Secret of Our Success
If you hurt your knee skiing, would you rather go to a general practitioner or a surgeon who specializes in knee surgery?
Specialization breeds unique expertise that leads to better, more valuable solutions. Although excellent customer service and other factors also contribute to it, specialization is at the very core of our success.
MetaComet® was born out of a flash of insight. In 1999 our founder, David Marlin, noticed that traditional publishing houses struggled mightily when it came time to calculate and distribute royalties to their authors. David used his background in software development to build the first platform in the world specifically designed to tackle royalty management. That system is our flagship product, Royalty Tracker®.
MetaComet has continued to refine our feature set, enhance performance, and beef up security for more than 22 years. Along the way the company has added additional solutions like Sales Aggregator and Royalty Portal and developed solutions for industries beyond publishing. But one thing has never changed: our laser focus on providing the very best royalty management software available.
Not only have we focused on royalty management as a company, but our software is so easy to use and powerful because it’s not a Swiss army knife. Royalty management is not something we bolted on as an afterthought. While it integrates with many other systems, royalty management and sales data aggregation software are the singular focus of our software.
Because of our focus and unique history as a pioneer, it is not a stretch for us to say that we have more expertise in this specific area and offer software that helps companies manage royalties more efficiently, accurately, and securely than anyone else on the planet.
What Makes MetaComet Different?
In addition to our exclusive focus on royalties, MetaComet is distinguished by:
- Our platform’s ease of onboarding and use
- Our team’s sincere dedication to customer success
- Our fixed cost implementation—no surprises!
- Our guarantee: If you’re not happy within your first three months of service, we will release you from your annual contract.
“We had one person spending all month calculating very complex royalties and generating reports. We then came across MetaComet and their Royalty Tracker System. Aside from knowing that our Royalties are done properly we have cut the time to process down to 2 days! We can’t say enough about David and his team.”
— Scott Moss, Vice Chairman / Mill Creek Entertainment
Frequently Asked Questions About Royalty Industries
What industries pay royalties?
Companies in a wide range of industries pay royalties in exchange for permission to license and sell or resell intellectual property (IP) from creators or other IP owners. These industries include:
- Media: book publishing, music, video games, movies and television, streaming video, and other forms of entertainment
- Science and technology: biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, life sciences, software, and electronics
- Online learning
- Consumer products
- Franchising
- Natural resources
What is the industry standard for royalties?
There is no single “industry standard” for royalties. Royalty rates and terms vary from one industry to the next, and within industries as well. Rates for any royalty licensing arrangement will be negotiated between two parties and will depend on the type of IP involved, the type of end product to be sold, perceived value, market demand, levels of risk and investment for both parties, the bargaining power of each of the parties, whether or not the license is exclusive, territories covered in the agreement, the duration of the agreement, and many other factors.
What are the average royalty rates by industry?
Even within a single industry, royalty rates will range far beyond any average, and standard rates will change over time. Average royalty rates should be considered only as rough benchmarks. That said, here are some typical industry-specific royalty rates as of this writing:
- Book publishing: In traditional publishing, royalty rates average around 10-15% for hardcover books, 5-10% for paperbacks, and 25-50% for ebooks. In hybrid publishing, rates range from 50%-90% of net sales. Subsidiary rights are often around 50%.
- Biotech: The most common biotech royalty rate is 5% of net sales, while 50% of deals involve royalty rates of 6% or less, and 90% involve royalty rates of 20% or less. Biotech royalty rates can range from 0.5% to 50% in extreme circumstances.
What is the difference between royalties and revenue shares?
While royalties are usually calculated as a percentage of revenue generated from a given property, revenue sharing is a broader concept in which multiple parties agree to split the income generated from a business venture or project. This can take the form of an equal split, percentage-based distributions, or a tiered model based on performance or other factors.
Both models tie compensation to the financial performance of a product or business, distribute the risk between participants, and align them all towards the success of the venture. Sometimes these models can be combined in an agreement.
Regardless of how simple or complex a royalty or revenue sharing arrangement is, or even if the two are blended, MetaComet software is designed to process sales, calculations, reporting, and payments with the same level of efficiency and ease.
Don’t See Your Industry?
Industry aside, if you need to calculate and distribute revenue based on sales data, our software is likely a fit. Rather than guess, let’s talk about your specific situation.