GridCraft: a free Excel alternative for musicians
GridCraft is ArtCraft's free, open-source app for "spreadsheets and data analysis", the job Excel does. It runs on macOS, Windows and Linux, and as a web build. Plenty of artists run their money on one spreadsheet. It works until the sheet can't tell you which song earned what, and everyone on the team has their own copy.
When a spreadsheet still makes sense
- Digging into a report: a streaming, sales or royalty export.
- A first draft of a tour or release budget, to try the numbers.
- A funder's format: grant applications that ask for a budget in their template.
- Lists: a guest list, a mailing list clean-up, a catalogue export.
Track your money in Aden instead
- Per song. Log income and expenses on a track, an album or the whole team in Financials: streaming revenue, sync fees, studio costs, session fees, with the amount, currency and dates.
- Splits done for you. Turn on the track's default splits and each entry is divided between its collaborators by the percentages already on the track.
- Invoices. Create, send and follow invoices from the same place, for a production, a sync license or a retainer.
- Statements from your label. When your label runs its royalties on Aden, your statements arrive in Financials too, ready to download as PDF, CSV or Excel. Open the CSV in GridCraft when you want to dig deeper.
Keep a shared sheet in sync
If you do keep a spreadsheet, keep one copy. On the Aden desktop app, move it into your team and keep opening it in GridCraft or Excel: every save syncs with the team, so nobody works from last month's numbers.
Get GridCraft
Download it from GridCraft's page on getartcraft.com, or install the Craft Launcher to get every ArtCraft app at once. See all the ArtCraft apps for musicians.
FAQ
Is GridCraft free?
Yes. GridCraft is open source and free to use on macOS, Windows and Linux.
How should a musician track income and expenses?
Per song. Put every payment and cost on the track it belongs to, so you can see what each release earned and cost, and split it with your collaborators. Aden's Financials does that with the splits already on the track.
Can I keep using a spreadsheet with Aden?
Yes. Move the file into your team from the desktop app and keep editing it in your spreadsheet app. Every save syncs with the team.
Related: royalties explained and how songwriters track splits.
Less admin. More music.
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