He grew up around publishing contracts the way other kids grew up around baseball cards. Now he writes the software that decides who gets paid.
// founder + CEO, Royalty Solutions Corp
Every time a song streams, a vending machine of fractions starts turning. A fraction to the writer. A fraction to the publisher. A fraction to a collection society three time zones away. Most people in music would rather not look inside that machine. Mark Spier built one.
His company, Royalty Solutions Corp, runs on a tagline that doubles as a worldview: "you make the Music, we do the Math." From an office on West 33rd Street in Manhattan, a small team handles the unglamorous machinery of the business - royalty accounting, copyright administration, catalog registration, mechanical licensing, and the payment processing that turns a billion micro-cents into a check a songwriter can actually cash.
He founded the firm in 2009, after noticing something his peers had stopped seeing: royalty processing was a real, specialized problem hiding in plain sight, made worse by the arrival of digital distribution. Where others saw drudgery, Spier saw a market with "special needs related to digital content distribution." So he built proprietary tools to meet it - including TuneLicensing, an in-house mechanical-licensing system, and a custom client portal where labels and publishers can see their own numbers instead of waiting for a quarterly spreadsheet.
What makes him unusual in a room full of music people is that he can read a balance sheet and a codebase. He calls his blend of computer science and accounting "the perfect foundation for tackling the complexities of music royalties." It is also, conveniently, the foundation for a company whose product is essentially accuracy at scale.
Grandfather wrote the hit. Father grew the catalog. Mark built the platform.
The family business started with a melody. In 1923, Larry Spier Sr. co-wrote "Memory Lane" - a hit big enough to be revived two decades later in a 1944 Abbott and Costello film, and big enough to start a publishing house named after it. Spier Sr. went on to run Chappell Music and touch Broadway through shows like Oklahoma! and South Pacific.
His son, Larry Spier Jr., took the presidency in 1955 and ran it for nearly half a century. When Larry Jr. died in 2003, the company passed to his son. Mark Spier became the third generation to sit in the chair - and the first to arrive with a computer science degree under his arm.
Under his watch since 2003, Memory Lane Music Group has more than doubled its catalog, adding pop standards and contemporary hits, and earned a place on the National Music Publishers' Association's Top 100. Its sister imprints - Scion Music and Larry Spier Music - carry the family name forward into rooms where writers cut records for the biggest names in pop.
Starts in technology, learning to think in systems before he ever thinks in songs.
Rises to Vice President, trading the codebase for the capital markets and a fluency in finance.
Takes over Memory Lane Music Group as third-generation President and CEO.
Founds Royalty Solutions Corp, betting that royalty processing deserves real software.
Builds TuneLicensing and a client royalty portal, and watches AI, blockchain and streaming for what comes next.
A proprietary, in-house mechanical-licensing system. The kind of plumbing the industry forgets exists until a payment is late.
A custom statement portal so clients can open their own financials instead of waiting on a quarterly PDF. Accounting, made legible.
Full-service royalty accounting, catalog registration and payment processing - branded as the client's, run as Spier's.
A century-old catalog, more than doubled on his watch and parked on the NMPA Top 100.
Six years on the AIMP Board of Directors; over a decade in the NMPA Team 100. He shows up for the industry, not just the invoice.
He tracks streaming growth and emerging tech, aiming to leverage AI for faster, more accurate royalty management, globally.
Making royalty accounting more transparent and efficient.
His grandfather co-wrote the 1923 song the family company is named after. The job came with a soundtrack.
He pairs a Cornell computer science degree with a Columbia MBA - rare in a business that usually runs on relationships and gut.
He has been going to Mets and Giants games for more than 50 years. Loyalty, apparently, is a Spier setting.
Off the clock you will find him on a golf course or a pickleball court, two sports defined by precise scorekeeping.
He lives on Long Island with his wife Lori and two sons, Matthew and Ben - generation four, in waiting.
A conversation on getting artists every cent they are owed.
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