Notes.fm has raised $5 million to expand its platform combining music distribution, publishing administration, royalty collection and financial tools within one system.
Founded by Stem co-founder Tim Luckow, the company is positioning itself as a central financial hub for independent artists and music businesses. The funding round includes backing from Zach Bryan, Benny Blanco, Tainy, Blake Slatkin, Matt Quinn of Mt. Joy and several prominent managers and industry executives.
The platform recently launched Releases, a feature developed alongside a new Stripe partnership that allows artists to coordinate distribution, publishing administration and payments through a simplified release process.
Rather than taking a percentage of distribution or publishing royalties, Notes.fm operates through a flat monthly subscription. Its technology reviews streaming platforms, collection societies and registries—including the MLC and SoundExchange—to identify incomplete registrations and potentially missing income.
Luckow said:
Between all of the actions required to properly release, credit and collect on music, there are a lot of places where money falls through the cracks. We built Notes to bring all of that into one platform.
According to the company, Notes.fm has already identified more than $10 million in previously unclaimed royalties across artists and catalogues including James Blake, Zach Bryan, Mt. Joy and girl in red.
Its wider infrastructure also includes Credits.fm, a free music-credits database indexing more than 150 million song codes and credits. Accurate, connected metadata is becoming increasingly important as artificial intelligence introduces new complications around attribution, licensing and compensation.
For independent artists, the proposition is straightforward: fewer disconnected services, greater visibility over earnings and more control from release day onwards. The bigger test will be whether Notes.fm can scale that model globally while navigating the collection systems and rights frameworks operating across different territories.
The investment reflects growing demand for music technology that does more than distribute recordings. As artists increasingly operate as independent businesses, platforms capable of connecting releases, rights data and revenue could become an essential part of the industry’s financial infrastructure.