Deals are at the center of how Habitat connects revenue from imported content to individual payees. In the Deal, you will specify the revenue sharing percentages that you will pay as a royalty to your artists. You will also specify which Payee(s) you want to account the royalties to and provide information about the type of agreement and terms that you have in place with the Payees. You can create Deals either via the interface on Habitat Financial, or in bulk via the Deal Excel template. More information here.
Add Deals via the Interface
To get started, click into the Deals menu from the Home Dashboard or go to the left sidebar and select the Deals icon. Once you’re in Deals menu, you can create a new Deal by selecting the “Create Deal” button on the top right of your screen. A Deal has many features to cover all possible Deal scenarios, many of which are optional to use. First, we will go through all the steps one generally would go through when creating a Deal. Further down we’ll briefly discuss the available options you may wish to use.
Overview Menu
Name your Deal – For your and your artist’s reference, pick a name that is clear and consistent.
Select Deal Type and Specify Terms – Choose the deal type associated with your contract terms whether that be a recordings deal, compositions deal, or merchandise deal. From there, you fill out information like Start to End Dates; Term Type whether that be Fixed, Open Ended, or Perpetual; status; or if the Deal Automatically Extends. Note: you can create multiple different deal types under one umbrella (i.e. Recordings & Merchandise).
Tracks Section
Add Tracks – Add any tracks that are included in the contract terms. You’ll pull tracks into the deal as they appear on the sales reports that you import via Revenue Streams. You can also add tracks that have been manually added to Habitat or created via one of our partners content pipelines. More details on the various way that you can add tracks to your Habitat deal can be found here.
In the case of a new release whose content is not yet appearing on your sales reports, we recommend skipping this section, adding your payees and splits, and using the “Tracks Missing Deals” menu to easily add tracks to the deal when they begin appearing on your sales reports. You can find more information about how to access the “Tracks Missing Deals Menu” here.
Splits Section
Select the Payee – Select the payees who will be indicated in the deal terms. The payees should already be created in the previous “Add Deal Share” section, but if needed, you can create new payees from this section by clicking “Add Payee” then clicking “Create New Payee”. For more information, click here.
Set your Sales Splits – The royalty rates are set within the Deal Shares section, and here you can pinpoint specific terms for specific use cases.
For simpler revenue sharing terms, associate the payee with the share of the deal that the payee has. The simplest of all royalty deals will have just one general term and all sales will be applied at the same royalty rate. For example, 50% of all revenue will be shared with your artist.
For more advanced split types, select the “Convert Terms to Advanced Type” near the bottom of the Deals Section and select the deal splits based on specific usage types like radio, neighboring rights, or sync. For example, by carving out Radio usages as a separate split, 60% of Radio Revenue could be shared with the artist while all other revenue types will be shared at 50%.
By converting to an advanced deal, you can also designate Payees under a “Label Share” or an “Artist Share.”