Publicly-traded companies have lots of shareholders, and by law are required to open their books every quarter. Should SoundExchange – a Congressionally-appointed non-profit with responsibilities to thousands of artists and labels – be subject to similar requirements?

On Thursday, the group pointed to artist and label payouts topping $54.8 million during the current quarter, higher than a first-quarter payout of $51.7 million. That is a record that makes sense alongside a growing non-interactive performance royalty pool. But what amounts are still being held and not getting paid? On this point, the group refused to disclose any additional financial information, including figures related to funds being held because of unresolved data problems, unregistered artists, and other holdups.

In early 2009, SoundExchange held an unresolved figure of roughly $90 million (due to no data, bad data, unregistered artists, and pending court cases). Has that grown substantially since? In a series of email exchanges with Digital Music News, SoundExchange Vice President of New Media & External Affairs Bryan Calhoun first said that he was “not in a position to comment on the updated balance,” then subsequently noted that the “balance has not really changed materially,” then backtracked by saying earlier comments were actually “on background” and not for publication.

Sounds a bit shady, though in fairness, $54.8 million is certainly a sizable payout amount. This is money in artist pockets, and something that didn’t exist before.

The rest of the story? Who knows…