Your BMI catalog is like the property register for your songs. And like any register, it can hold typos, duplicates and numbers that do not add up. The difference is that here the errors are not just annoying: they can block the payment of royalties that are yours. Let us go through it together, without jargon.
📄 What is a BMI export and how do I get it?
An export is simply the complete list of your registered works, with the data for each one: title, writers, percentages, publisher, codes. You can download it from your BMI account. It is your X-ray. Without it, you are guessing. With it, you can really check.
Once you have it open, you are going to look at four things. One by one.
⚖️ How do I spot over-claims above 100%?
Each work is divided among its writers, and the sum of all the percentages has to come to exactly 100%. No more, no less.
The most common error is the over-claim: the work adds up to more than 100%. It happens when you registered your share and your co-writer registered theirs, but the numbers do not match. For example, you put 50%, your co-writer put 60%, and now the song “exists” at 110%. That excess is a red flag: somebody is claiming too much, and that can block or divert the payment.
Check work by work that the sum comes to 100. If it comes to more (or less), note it down.
👯 Why do duplicate titles appear?
Duplicates happen when the same song is registered twice. Sometimes identically; sometimes phonetically — the same title spelled differently (“Corazón” vs “Corazon”, or with an accent, a space or an extra word).
Why does it matter? Because when the money arrives, the system does not know which of the two versions to pay. The song fights with itself and the payment gets stuck or split wrongly. Look for titles that resemble each other too closely and decide which one is correct.
🔢 What is the IPI and why check it?
Your IPI is like your songwriter identity number: a unique code that follows you across the whole royalty world. If your IPI is wrong or missing on a work, that work may not recognise you as its writer, even though your name is on it.
Check that your IPI is the same and correct across all your works. A wrong IPI is like having your name right but your ID number wrong: the money does not know it is you.
📦 What are unreconciled works and how do they relate to the black box?
An unreconciled work is one where the data does not quite add up — splits that do not total, a co-writer who never confirmed, incomplete information. While it stays that way, the royalty it generates cannot be safely paid.
And where does that stuck money go? To the black box: the pool of unclaimed royalties. If it sits there too long, it gets shared out by market share — that is, towards whoever carries the most weight in the market, not necessarily towards you. Reconciling your works in time is how you pull your money out of that pool before it gets shared away.
❌ Why do all these errors happen?
It is not (always) bad faith. They happen because:
- Several people register the same song separately and do not agree on the splits.
- Names and titles are spelled differently on each platform.
- Nobody goes through the catalog with a magnifying glass after registering.
- The process is manual, boring and easy to get wrong.
They are normal human errors. The problem is that almost nobody looks for them, so they sit there quietly, taking money away.
📊 How does El Auditor do it automatically?
Checking all of this by hand, work by work, takes hours and is easy to get wrong. That is why El Auditor exists.
El Auditor takes your BMI export and checks it automatically, looking for exactly these flags:
- Works adding up to more than 100%.
- Duplicate titles, or phonetically similar ones.
- IPI entered wrong or inconsistently.
- Unreconciled works that could be falling into the black box.
And it does something more: when it finds a problem, it drafts the email to your PRO ready to send, explaining what is wrong and what to correct. You just review it and send.
Important: El Auditor shows you what it sees and prepares the tool, but you decide and you authorise. Solnota never touches your money or acts for you without your permission. The money that belongs to you goes straight to your bank.