Content Licensing &
Online Learning:
Royalties Made Easy
Reduce Your Royalty Management
Time Spent by 90%
Content licensing has become a cornerstone of online learning programs. As programs expand, managing content licensing agreements and royalties becomes more and more complicated, time-consuming, and error-prone. With 25 years of experience simplifying complex royalty processes, MetaComet® can help you save time and conserve resources, no matter how rapidly your online learning business grows and evolves.
Managing Content Licensing Royalties Without the Stress
As online education programs have grown in scale and complexity, so have the related content licensing agreements with course creators and other third parties. But growth and change doesn’t always require a deep investment in new resources. MetaComet®’s suite of royalty management solutions automates your royalty calculations, reports, and payments to make them efficient, accurate, and stress-free.
Why MetaComet®?
Hundreds of companies rely on MetaComet as their royalty financial software provider because of our:
– Exclusive focus on royalty accounting software.
– Simple, proven onboarding process.
– Transparency and ease of use.
– Straightforward integration with any ERP or financial or accounting software.
– Sincere dedication to customer success.
– Fixed cost implementation, with no surprises.
– SOC 2 Type II security certification.
– Risk-free 12-month trial period. –
→ Ask us how our accounting software can help your institution manage royalty payments.
Frequently Asked Questions About Content Licensing, Online Learning, and Royalties
What is content licensing in online learning?
Educational institutions and online learning platforms engage in licensing when they acquire the rights to use any copyrighted work of intellectual property (IP) in their courses or programs. It will involve a legal agreement and most likely, a payment of fees, which may be flat fees or royalties based on a percentage of earnings related to the property. An open access license, such as Creative Commons, will not require royalties or other fees.
How does content licensing work?
In a licensing model, the IP creator or copyright holder retains their ownership of the work, while granting use of the property to the licensee under a defined set of terms. The terms may limit the platforms, territories, use cases, or length of time during which the licensee may redistribute the content.
What are examples of content licensing in online learning?
Licensing content can take many different forms and encompass a variety of content types and media. An institution or platform may license course curricula, texts, assessments, video, multimedia or interactive content, or software to be used in online learning.
How do royalties work in content licensing for online learning?
There are a few different royalty models that might be adopted in content licensing agreements. The licensor may be paid a certain amount per student, a percentage of the overall revenue derived from the content, or flat rate royalties with tiers based on enrollment numbers. Some online learning platforms pay course creators based on engagement metrics like time spent viewing an educational video or number of course completions.
Other factors established in the content licensing agreement may affect royalty calculations and payments, such as:
- The frequency of payments or the royalty period
- Advances or minimum guarantees, which are paid out early in the licensing period with future royalties “earned against” the advance payment
- Adjustments for refunds, cancellations, or promotional discounts
- Net revenue definitions – If the royalty calculations are based on a percentage of net revenue, the contract should clearly outline what expenses are subtracted from gross revenue to determine the “net” – these might include discounts, taxes, etc.
- Allocations among multiple authors or content creators
How can content licensing royalties be simplified?
Even if a content licensee is managing relatively simple licensing agreements, the process of royalty calculations and payments becomes complex when the number of licensed assets grows. No matter how complicated the web of royalty agreements may become, the entire royalty management process can be streamlined with the adoption of a royalty automation tool, such as MetaComet’s Royalty Tracker.
The Royalty Tracker workflow is straightforward and applies to all kinds of content licensing scenarios:
- First, enter the rules from the contracts. Customized templates make this process easy and foolproof.
- Then, import enrollment, engagement, or revenue numbers.
- Instantly generate reports to confirm accuracy and give you the financial information you need for your business.
- Finally, push a single button to distribute this payment period’s royalty statements and payment files for all recipients.
Are you ready for stress-free royalty management?
→ Connect with us to see our royalty accounting software in action.