Image Credit: Tim Nixon, Trolley CEO, and Edward Ginis, OpenPlay CEO
Why This Partnership Matters
If you’ve ever wondered why your favorite indie artist disappears after one breakout hit, the answer often comes down to money more specifically, how slowly and unclearly it moves. The global music industry still struggles with outdated royalty payment systems, especially for independent creators. But a new partnership between OpenPlay and Trolley could change that.
The two companies OpenPlay, a backend platform for music catalog management, and Trolley, a global payouts infrastructure have announced a major integration aimed at making royalty payments faster, safer, and more transparent for artists, labels, and publishers around the world.
This isn’t just another tech stack tie-in. It’s a signal that the industry is waking up to the broken backend of the music economy and finally doing something about it.
Breaking Down the Integration: What’s Actually Changing?
At the heart of this move is OpenPlay Reach, a royalty-focused arm of OpenPlay launched earlier this year. Reach was built to help labels and publishers manage and distribute royalties tied to both music and video assets. Now, with Trolley’s integration, it can also handle the payout layer a notoriously tricky part of the process when it comes to tax compliance, fraud prevention, and international regulations.
“At Trolley, our mission is to build the payouts platform for the internet economy,” said Tim Nixon, CEO and Founder of Trolley. “We’re empowering music labels and artists with financial transparency and seamless, artist-level payouts so that creators everywhere can thrive.”
Trolley already processes billions in payments annually to over 5 million recipients in more than 210 countries. That scale means OpenPlay’s clients whether a bedroom producer or a multi-national label can now benefit from enterprise-grade tools without needing their own payments infrastructure.
The Problem They’re Solving: Royalty Chaos in the Digital Age
Here’s the thing: while the music industry has been revolutionized by streaming, social platforms, and direct-to-fan models, the systems that manage who gets paid and how haven’t kept up.
According to the IFPI’s Global Music Report, global music revenues reached $28.6 billion in 2023, with streaming accounting for 67% of that. But as more creators enter the scene and monetization happens across dozens of platforms, the complexity of royalty calculations has ballooned.
Edward Ginis, Co-Founder and Chief Client Officer of OpenPlay, put it plainly: “We’ve seen Trolley’s dedication to simplifying royalty payments in an increasingly complex digital music economy. We’re proud to bring Trolley into the OpenPlay Reach suite.”
By reducing the number of intermediaries and automating steps like tax form management and risk assessment, this partnership aims to plug the leaks where artists and rightsholders lose both time and money.
Independent Artists Could See the Biggest Impact
While major labels have long had dedicated teams (and deep pockets) to navigate royalty disbursement, indie labels and self-managed artists often face a different reality late payments, missing data, and compliance headaches.
This collaboration levels the playing field. OpenPlay and Trolley say they’re building for everyone, but their messaging leans heavily into supporting the independent sector.
Together, they’re pushing for a future where an artist doesn’t need a full-time business manager just to get paid. It’s about access, control, and clarity values that resonate strongly in the modern creator economy.
Zooming Out: What This Signals for the Industry
This isn’t the first time tech has stepped in to untangle music royalties. Companies like Stem, Kobalt, and Amuse have all taken stabs at automating royalty flows. But OpenPlay and Trolley bring something different: infrastructure-first thinking with proven track records.
OpenPlay already powers the backend for labels like Universal Music Group. Trolley serves platforms in other verticals too helping marketplaces, platforms, and SaaS companies move money globally with compliance baked in.
Bringing that muscle into music might finally be what tips the balance in favor of transparency and efficiency.
Final Note: A Step Toward a Fairer Music Economy
For too long, the royalty system has worked like a black box slow, opaque, and tilted against the very people it’s meant to serve. With this partnership, OpenPlay and Trolley are nudging the industry toward a more equitable and technologically sound future.
Whether you’re a label executive trying to streamline operations or an indie artist trying to pay rent, this is the kind of backend evolution that could actually change your day-to-day. And in an industry that’s often driven by hype, it’s refreshing to see a headline that’s about infrastructure with the power to actually make things better.
