Music Advisory · Rights & Royalty Integrity

Every catalog
holds more
than it earns.

Maxwell & Schweighauser is a boutique advisory firm that uncovers what music rights holders are owed — and builds the systems to protect it.

Arrange a Consultation Who We Serve
$100K+
Recovered from a single song — the artist had been paid a one-time €700 advance and nothing more.
100+
Songs with identified metadata errors in a single catalog, representing an estimated over $100K in missing royalty income for a single family.
"The leakage is not the exception.
It is the rule."
— Maxwell & Schweighauser, founding principle

Our Story

Built from a
personal discovery

Maxwell & Schweighauser was founded after one of our partners discovered that his grandfather — a contributor to iconic recordings including the Kool & the Gang catalog — had been systematically underpaid for decades.

What began as a single family's pursuit of what was rightfully theirs revealed something true about the entire industry: royalty leakage is not the exception. It is the rule. Missing registrations, mismatched metadata, uncollected foreign income, and unaudited legacy deals are present in virtually every catalog we have reviewed.

Today we bring that same discipline to every rights holder we serve — from families protecting a creative legacy to institutions acquiring catalogs at scale.

"We have never reviewed a catalog that did not hold more than its owner believed."

Maxwell & Schweighauser · Founding Partners

Who We Serve

Every rights holder
deserves complete returns.

We work across the full spectrum of music rights ownership — from families stewarding a loved one's creative legacy, to institutions acquiring and managing catalogs at scale. Our work is the same in every engagement: find what is missing, recover what is owed, and build the infrastructure to prevent future loss.

01

Families & Estates

For families managing a creative legacy, we provide royalty audits, rights chain clarification, metadata correction, and long-term stewardship planning. We ensure that the music someone built their life around continues to generate what it should — for this generation and the next.

02

Catalog Acquirers

For funds, platforms, and strategic buyers, we validate catalog performance before and after acquisition. Our audits uncover revenue gaps, verify royalty streams, assess metadata integrity, and surface risks that materially impact valuation and returns.

03

Business Managers

For managers overseeing multiple artists or estates, we provide scalable oversight — bringing clarity across catalogs, monitoring income accuracy, resolving discrepancies, and enabling confident reporting to clients, trustees, and advisors.

Areas of Expertise

Six disciplines.
One mandate.

Our work spans the complete royalty lifecycle — from initial registration through ongoing collection, metadata management, and rights protection. Each engagement draws on all six disciplines as the catalog requires.

I.
Catalog Audits

A meticulous review of royalty collections across PROs, global rights organizations, and streaming services — uncovering overlooked revenue streams and income that should have been paid.

II.
Metadata Cleanup

Untangling missing, mismatched, or misfiled song data across platforms and registries — ensuring every play, sync, and stream is correctly attributed and collected.

III.
Song Registration

Overseeing complete registration with rights organizations and royalty collection agencies across territories, closing the gaps that allow income to go unclaimed.

IV.
Catalog Valuation

A data-driven assessment of what a catalog is worth today and what it could yield under optimized collection — supporting deal negotiations, estate planning, and long-term strategy.

V.
Royalty Management

A custom roadmap to minimize registration gaps and missed collections — ensuring every right, every song, and every revenue stream is accounted for on an ongoing basis.

VI.
Copyright Assessment

Combining music theory expertise with data analytics to evaluate potential infringement cases — delivering actionable analysis for rights holders, estates, and legal teams.

Representative Results

What we find
surprises everyone.

Royalty Recovery · Single Song
$100K+

The artist had been paid a one-time €700 advance — nothing more. Our audit analyzed the song's digital performance to determine what the label owed and had never paid.

Identity of rights holder withheld at client request.

Metadata Audit · Publishing Catalog
$100K

Estimated missing royalty income identified across a single family's 100+ song catalog through metadata error analysis. Incorrect or incomplete song data had prevented proper attribution across streaming platforms and collection societies for years.

Figures represent estimated recoverable income identified at audit conclusion.

The Partners

Two disciplines.
One firm.

Matthew Maxwell

Matthew Maxwell

Co-Founder & Managing Partner

BA Economics · Harvard University MM Music Production & Technology · Berklee College of Music MBA · UCLA Anderson School of Management Prior: BlackRock Financial Institutions Group · SoundExchange

Before founding Maxwell & Schweighauser, Matthew built his foundation in finance at BlackRock, where he supported institutional client portfolios ranging from $500 million to $32 billion in assets under management. That training in asset stewardship — treating creative output as a long-term financial asset worthy of precise management — defines his approach to catalog work today.

As a former senior analyst at SoundExchange, he specialized in royalty analysis, metadata correction, and catalog auditing, developing the systematic methodology the firm now brings to every engagement. Matthew's entry into music rights began when he discovered his grandfather had been underpaid for his contributions to iconic recordings including the Kool & the Gang catalog — a personal experience that revealed how widespread the problem of royalty leakage truly is.

Jack Schweighauser

Jack Schweighauser

Co-Founder & Managing Partner

BA Economics · Williams College MA Music Business · NYU Steinhardt MBA · UCLA Anderson School of Management Prior: Interscope Records · Boutique Music Publisher

Jack's career in music began in the copyright department of a boutique publisher, where he first encountered the full complexity of royalty collection firsthand — reconciling songwriter splits across thousands of titles and tracing missing royalty claims that had gone unresolved for years. That work gave him a precise understanding of where the rights landscape breaks down and why.

At Interscope Records, he served as Manager of Business Analysis, working across marketing, A&R, and revenue teams to drive strategy for both new releases and catalog. He brings deep technical expertise in R, SQL, and JavaScript, and has built the proprietary royalty tracking systems and reporting tools that sit at the core of Maxwell & Schweighauser's analytical work.

Contact

Begin with
a conversation.

Most engagements begin with a confidential introductory call. We will listen to your situation, ask the right questions, and give you an honest assessment of what we believe we can find — before any commitment is made.

Email info@maxwellschweighauser.com
Engagements Families & Estates · Catalog Acquirers · Business Managers
Confidentiality All inquiries are held in strict confidence.

We typically respond within one business day. All communications are confidential.