01
Onboard
- • Create your account in the Dark Lab dashboard
- • Choose songwriter or company registration paths
- • Complete profile details for accurate payouts and records
(How it works)
A publishing workflow you can actually follow
From access to success: register songs, track royalties, and deliver statements with a practical admin experience for independent rights holders.
(The journey)
Four stages from signup to statements
Clear steps that keep creative independence while professionalizing the business side of your songs.
02
Build catalog
- • Add compositions with title, artist, and writer credits
- • Store ownership splits and supporting metadata
- • Keep writers and songs linked in one source of truth
03
Track income
- • Review royalty summaries per song and DSP
- • Filter by date ranges and status
- • Use analytics to spot growth and volume trends
04
Deliver statements
- • Generate statements for a selected period
- • Share professional exports with collaborators
- • Move statement status through draft to paid workflows
(How publishing administration works)
From first registration to royalty statements
Competitors explain publishing admin as register, collect, pay. Dark Lab makes that loop visible in a dashboard: onboard, build the catalog, track income, then deliver statements.
What you provide when you register a song
Accurate registration is the difference between a song that can be matched and a song that sits unmatched. Before you expect royalties, confirm the legal title used on DSPs, every writer’s legal name, the split for each contributor, and any identifiers you already have.
- Legal song title and any alternate titles
- All writers and publishers with agreed percentages that total 100%
- Artist/performer credit, duration, and ISRC for the recording if you have it
- ISWC if a society has already issued one
Why the first statement takes time
Societies and digital partners do not pay overnight. Across the industry, it is common for the first matched publishing royalties to take several months after registration, because works must be ingested, acknowledged, and matched to usage. After that, income typically arrives in cycles rather than in real time.
Dark Lab’s role is to keep the catalog, royalty statuses, and statement periods organized so you can see what is pending versus paid — instead of waiting on an unexplained delay.
Statements are the proof layer
When a manager, collaborator, or accountant asks what a period earned, a dashboard screenshot is not enough. Generate a statement for the period, export PDF, Excel, or CSV, and keep the workflow from draft through paid. That is how independent catalogs look professional to partners.
Start with one song. Scale the catalog.
The fastest way to understand Dark Lab is to open the dashboard and walk the flow yourself.