Thursday, October 23rd, 2025
To Our Artists, Supporters, and Partners:
For the past 40 years, American Composers Forum has been proud to offer record label services to composers through innova. In early 2025, ACF staff discovered that a significant number of royalty payments had not been made to composers in a timely manner due to a breakdown of systems over multiple years. Upon identifying this issue — and understanding that there had also been a lack of communication with innova artists — we made the decision to pause new submissions to the label and prioritize a clean up of our internal processes and procedures.
Resolving this issue has become a top priority for me as I have transitioned into the role of Executive Director. This past summer, we launched an extensive research process to determine the status of each innova album and any funds owed to artists. I am pleased to share that we are nearing the end of this process, and that the majority of back payments have been issued on all accounts exceeding $50 in royalties, with remaining payments scheduled for release within the next several weeks.
As a continuation of this work, ACF established a task force consisting of innova artists, attorneys, recording industry experts, former ACF staff, and ACF board members to review our label operations and recommend new systems to move away from manual tracking and help us adapt to the significant industry changes brought about by streaming platforms. We are grateful to all of our innova artists for their patience and grace as we undergo this operational transition so that we can better serve composers through the innova label.
Looking ahead, I am examining the viability of moving all innova artists to an updated contract to streamline future payment calculations. Additionally, we plan to upgrade to an automated service that can more efficiently track royalties and offer real-time transparency for our artists, with new submissions to the label resuming next fiscal year.
On behalf of American Composers Forum, I want to thank you for your continued support of our mission. If you are an innova artist who believes they have been affected by this issue, please reach out to us at innova@composersforum.org.
With gratitude,
Loki Karuna, Executive Director
American Composers Forum