Instrumental Scales Royalty Payouts While Reducing Finance Staff from 4 to 1

The Challenge

Manual banking could not keep up with global payouts

Instrumental, a global music label supporting independent artists across the US, UK, and Europe, was manually managing royalty payments, and it was unsustainable. Every month, up to five members on the finance team processed hundreds of cross-border payouts using Barclays Banking. It was a labor-intense process where the risk of errors was high.

 And manual entry was slow, risking artist trust. Without a secure system to collect and validate bank details, the team spent hours of time entering and verifying banking information. To scale, Instrumental needed an automated payment system that ensured accuracy and artist satisfaction.

The Solution

Automate Payouts Through Artist Self-Service

Instrumental eliminated inefficiency by implementing Tipalti Mass Payments. They streamlined payment workflows and processed global royalty payouts, saving time. Artists could self-onboard and directly input their own banking details, which drastically reduced the risk of data-entry errors.

Tipalti’s automated validation system ensures that artists’ banking information is accurate, enhancing transparency while reducing the need for manual interventions. Instrumental can now process hundreds of payments in a single upload using Tipalti’s customizable templates. 

This streamlined approach doesn’t just save time. It also improves reliability and artist satisfaction. By centralizing and automating payment workflows, Instrumental has a scalable, efficient system that meets the demands of its globally dispersed artist community.

The Result

Scale Global Payments with 75% Less Staff

With Tipalti, Instrumental cut payment processing from four or five full-time roles to just one dedicated staff member and a single approver

The company now processes up to 300,000 royalty payments monthly, handling complex cross-border transactions with minimal oversight. With Tipalti’s mass payment functionality and secure bank detail collection, Instrumental has nearly eliminated failed transactions. This improvement enhances both accuracy and artist satisfaction. 

The automated system not only reduces errors–it supports compliance. By automating global payments, Instrumental is free to focus on innovation and growing the business.