Web-based royalty system and user interface

A Web-based royalty system and user interface for tracking and managing albums and other digital works comprising:

• a first computer having at least one processor and a memory;
• a Web browser operating on said first computer;
• an album view interface, running in a graphical user interface hosted by the Web browser, having browser-rendered user input elements to manage a plurality of albums from the Web browser, said album view interface comprising:
• an album section listing general information about each album,
• an expandable, collapsible tracks section listing audio tracks that comprise each album, the tracks section providing, in response to user selection of a track, an expanded track entry view listing master sound recording data and song data for the selected track together with contracts associated with the selected track, said master sound recording data providing on-demand access to actual sound recordings that comprise the tracks, at least some of the contracts comprising contract terms specifying royalties applicable to the selected track, and wherein at least two of the contract terms overlap such that a conflict arises as to which contract terms shall apply to certain sales involving the selected track,
• a products section listing products that each album is sold under,
• a contracts section listing all underlying contracts associated with each album, the contracts section providing, in response to user input, on-demand access to an editable copy of a given contract that has been associated with an album and on-demand access to a prioritized listing of contract terms for the given contract having a user-assigned priority value for each contract term, so that when a conflict arises as to which of two or more overlapping contract terms should apply to a given sale, the contract term having the highest priority is applied, the prioritized listing also including a default contract term that is applied to any sale not otherwise governed by contract terms, and
• a track entry view providing on-demand access to underlying contracts associated with each user-selected track of interest;
• a revenue module running within the Web browser and having user input elements to input sales records for each product;
• a second computer having at least one processor and a memory, said second computer in communication with said first computer;
• a calculation engine operating on said second computer for calculating royalties due for the sales records inputted for each product, by matching each sales record with a given product listed in the product section, and determining for each matched product royalties due based on applying contract terms that are applicable to sales of that product, including resolving any conflicts that arise from overlapping contract terms using said user-assigned priority values assigned for the contract terms and applying default contract terms for sales not otherwise covered by a contract term;
• and
• a statement generator operating on said second computer for generating royalty reports of the calculated royalties for display to the user at the Web browser operating on said first computer.