Field Notes from the desk.
Dispatches from inside the work. Forensic case histories from the Black Box desk, methodology papers from the research team, market briefs sized in dollars rather than rhetoric. Fifteen pieces in research this quarter. First filings posting May 2026.
Recovering £340,000 of uncollected royalties across a 2,100-title catalogue.
Six months inside a back-catalogue recovery: the writer, the gaps, and the claim that settled in ninety-one days.
The Eastern European streaming anomaly: a case study in geographic fraud.
Streaming fraud is not random. It clusters geographically and operationally. A composite case showing how a coordinated playlist network generates high play counts with zero legitimate engagement.
The estate that did not know it owned half the song.
A 1970s co-write, a deceased writer, a publisher acquisition in 2004, and three conflicting society registrations. A significant royalty balance uncollected for over a decade.
What a catalogue due diligence audit actually finds.
M&A diligence looks at what a catalogue has earned. It almost never looks at what it should have earned. A composite case showing the gap between acquisition model and royalty reality.
How this works.
Each piece begins with a deep-research pass against the public literature, then gets drafted by the desk that owns the question. Status pills flip from In research to Forthcoming to Published as pieces move down the pipeline. To receive new Field Notes by email when they post, drop us a line.