Spare Music has integrated Trolley to overhaul how they pay artists and manage taxes, cutting payout times from hours to seconds, putting more money in artists’ pockets, and providing a better experience for both internal teams and recipients alike.
“We were so used to hearing, ‘I’ll have to check with my manager.’ Trolley was the first team that just got it.”
That’s how Spare Music’s CEO described the shift to Trolley. Here’s why they made the move—and what happened next.
Supporting independent artists driving today’s music industry
Spare Music is on a mission to help independent artists, producers, and rights holders take control of their earnings. The platform offers intuitive tools for distribution, royalty splitting, and performance analytics, all designed to support the creative community in managing and monetizing their output on their own terms.
As Spare’s artist base and transaction volume rapidly grew, so did the operational complexity behind the scenes. Payouts took longer. Manual work piled up. And the artist experience, something Spare prides itself on, started to suffer.
They needed a partner who could scale with them and match their pace without sacrificing quality or clarity.
When success outpaces existing systems
As Spare’s user base grew, its payout and tax operations struggled to keep up. Processing payout batches with their previous provider took hours, some international payments were unreliable, and artists were often confused by unclear tax form workflows.
To make matters worse, international ACH fees reached as high as $15 per payment, eating into recipients’ earnings.
Even getting started was difficult. The onboarding experience with their previous provider was slow and disjointed, often requiring multiple rounds of clarification and follow-up.
“When we onboarded with [them], it was constant emails back and forth. It was painful,” said Moody Al-Badrawi, CEO of Spare Music.
Spare was also mistakenly classified as a Canadian entity, triggering redundant compliance checks and delaying payouts.
And once they were up and running, the inefficiency only continued. The provider’s lack of guidance around tax form submission meant artists frequently submitted invalid forms, leading to more support tickets and manual reviews.
Making the switch: Faster, smarter, more scalable
Spare selected Trolley to bring clarity, speed, and usability to their payout and tax compliance processes. From the first call, Trolley offered something different.
“The first standout was the Trolley team’s enthusiasm and deep product knowledge,” said Moody. “Every conversation with Trolley was refreshing. We got clear, immediate answers with no need for follow-up or delays.”
Spare was able to register and get started immediately, and sandbox accounts were spun up with minimal effort and no added costs—something their previous provider charged thousands for.
And those early impressions carried through once Spare was fully onboarded and live. Processing time for payout batches dropped from two to three hours to under a minute. And that efficiency came with lower costs, too: Spare was surprised to find their first payout fees significantly lower than expected.
Their recipients benefited directly, too, many of them saving around $20 per transfer thanks to Trolley’s local payment routes. Spare’s artists and rightsholders now take home more of what they’ve earned, instead of losing it to high wire transfer fees.
Improved onboarding, stronger compliance
The transition to Trolley also improved recipient onboarding and compliance. With Trolley’s guided tax form collection, rightsholders are submitting the correct forms the first time.
“We’ve seen a significant drop in support tickets—especially around tax forms,” Moody said. “[Our previous payouts provider] allowed people to upload manual tax forms, and you can imagine the types of things people upload. Artists now know exactly what to submit. The number of invalid forms is now close to zero.”
Spare’s team also highlighted the quality of support they’ve received since switching to Trolley. From onboarding to day-to-day questions, the experience has been consistently positive. “The support and compliance teams are in a different league,” Moody added. “We get responses in minutes, not days.”
From delays to done-in-seconds
Since integrating with Trolley, Spare has seen a complete transformation in how they manage payouts and compliance.
Payout processing time has dropped by 99%, freeing up valuable time for the Spare team to focus on other priorities. And rightsholders are getting paid faster. Payments that used to take days, especially via PayPal, are now processed in minutes. Bank transfers are also arriving much faster, often by the next day.
And because international transfer fees have fallen dramatically, recipients are taking home more of their hard-earned money. “We’ve had countless people reach out who used to be on $27.50 wires and are now enjoying $6.50 local transfers,” Moody said.
Support requests related to tax forms have decreased significantly. Clearer workflows and built-in validation mean artists are submitting the right forms upfront, reducing confusion and delays.
Everything just worked, both for Spare’s internal teams and the artists and rightsholders who rely on it. With fewer compliance issues and more operational visibility, Spare is well-positioned to scale without added operational strain.
What’s next: compliance without complexity
With faster, cheaper payouts and fewer compliance headaches already in place, Spare is now looking to take the next step: bringing their entire recipient onboarding and verification process under one roof.
“Our goal is to centralize onboarding and compliance,” Moody shared. “Right now, we use another provider for artist verification, but having everything run through Trolley would simplify the experience for everyone.”
By consolidating tools, Spare aims to maintain the same high level of service even as they grow, while minimizing friction for artists joining their platform. With Pay and Tax already delivering results, expanding into Trolley Trust could help Spare lock in long-term operational efficiency and fraud protection, without adding extra overhead.
Spare’s journey is one that many fast-growing platforms face: how to scale without sacrificing the experience that sets them apart. With Trolley, they’ve found more than just a payments provider—they’ve gained a partner in building a better artist experience. If you’re looking to streamline payouts, reduce compliance headaches, and future-proof your operations, let’s talk.
