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Indie Artist With 4.3 Million Spotify Plays Receives Check for $5,078
 Paul Resnikoff (https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/author/presnikoff/)  June 21, 2017

 39 (https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2017/06/21/spotify-million-royalty-indie-tunecore/#comments)

Image by Thomas Galvez (CC by 2.0)

If you’re trying to live o your Spotify spins, stop it right now.

Taylor Swift makes $400,000 o Spotify in a weekend.  But nearly everyone else making bubkes.  Which means if you’re hoping to making
streaming your breadwinner, you’re probably snacking on crumbs.

Enter the latest independent artist to share a royalty statement with Digital Music News.  And, hopefully share some intel with the musician
community in the process (Spotify doesn’t share per-stream data).

Here’s the top-level for ‘Artist X,’ an independent musician who controls all of his copyrights.  Basically, if you own all of your copyrights, you don’t
have to share your royalties with a label, publisher, or co-writer.  Which means Artist X is getting 100% of the royalties after Spotify takes its
(approximately) 30% cut (his distributor, Tunecore, takes an upfront fee (http://www.tunecore.com/pricing)). Privacy - Terms
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 Total spins: 4,294,962

Total Tunecore payout: $5,077.87

Here’s a quick screenshot of Artist X’s Tunecore summary page. The part on the left shows downloads.  The part on the right breaks down the
total streams and amounts paid for those streams.

A few Apple Music, Deezer, and other streaming platform spins are mixed into this.  But its overwhelmingly Spotify.

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So how does this compare?

This seems really low, but there’s the summary right in front of his face.  At this stage, Artist X thinks this might be a payout problem involving
Tunecore, given some discrepancies with his Spotify Dashboard totals.  We’ll keep you updated on what he nds out (if anything).

+ Raise Your Hand If You Still Like Music Downloads (https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2017/06/16/raise-hand-music-downloads/)

But it’s really hard to do an ‘apples to apples’ comparison, given that royalty rates change all the time.  Last year, we received a royalty statement
from an unsigned artist that crossed 1 million streams (https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2016/05/26/band-1-million-spotify-streams-royalties/).
 But those royalties dated back to 2013, when payouts were reportedly much higher.

Hey, more data is better than less, so here’s what that artist reported to us: Privacy - Terms
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 MORE NEWS:  The NFL Is Opening 'O cial Hubs' on Spotify, Pandora, SoundCloud, Tidal

Total number of streams: 1,023,501

Total revenue: $4,955.90

Speci c time period accounted: 10/15/2013 – 2/15/2017

So, that’s about the same payment with roughly one-quarter the amount of streams.  Which means that either payouts are really plummeting, or
Artist X isn’t seeing his full royalty check.

And for those that really want to dig in, here’s the complete royalty breakdown for February 2017.  We’ve removed identifying information.

NOW
PLAYING

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Paul Resnikoff (https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/author/presnikoff/)  Publisher, Founder, French Horn Player

Hello! I'm the founder and publisher of Digital Music News, the authority for people in music. My coverage focus spans streaming platforms, artist
royalties, format disruption, the vinyl resurgence, copyright battles, startup struggles, and nancing/m&a. Let's chat! [email protected]

R E L AT E D P O S T S

SPOTIFY’S Q2 2019 — THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY (HTTPS://WWW.DIGITALMUSICNEWS.COM/2019/07/31/SPOTIFY-Q2-2019/)
 Daniel Sanchez (https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/author/dsanchez/)  July 31, 2019  1 (https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2019/07/31/spotify-q2-2019/#comments)
(https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2019/07/31/spotify-q2-2019/)

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AS PIRACY SIGNIFICANTLY DECLINES, ITALY’S MUSIC INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION REVEALS THE TRUE PROBLEM — SPOTIFY AND YOUTUBE
(HTTPS://WWW.DIGITALMUSICNEWS.COM/2019/07/23/ITALY-SPOTIFY-YOUTUBE-PROBLEM/)
 Daniel Sanchez (https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/author/dsanchez/)  July 23, 2019

 5 (https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2019/07/23/italy-spotify-youtube-problem/#comments)
(https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2019/07/23/italy-spotify-youtube-problem/)

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SPOTIFY BARELY CROSSES 2 MILLION USERS IN INDIA — THOUGH ‘LITE’ IS GROWING DRAMATICALLY (HTTPS://WWW.DIGITALMUSICNEWS.COM/2019/07/18/SPOTIFY-INDIA-2-MILLION/)
 Daniel Sanchez (https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/author/dsanchez/)  July 18, 2019
(https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2019/07/18/spotify-india-2-million/)

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 SPOTIFY LAUNCHES A DEDICATED ‘DISNEY HUB’ FEATURING CLASSIC TV AND MOVIE SONGS (HTTPS://WWW.DIGITALMUSICNEWS.COM/2019/07/17/SPOTIFY-DISNEY-HUB/)
 Daniel Sanchez (https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/author/dsanchez/)  July 17, 2019
(https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2019/07/17/spotify-disney-hub/)

39 RESPONSES

D M N R u n n in g ou t of An ti- Sp otif y He ad lin e s

June 2 1 , 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 1 0 3 2 )

“At this stage, Artist X thinks this might be a payout problem involving Tunecore, given some discrepancies with his Spotify Dashboard totals.”

REPLY

Jor ge - S ym ph on i c D i s t r ibu tion

June 2 1 , 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 1 0 3 4 )

Wow, I sure hope that this is a bug of their systems or some other problem. We pulled a report from our system, one song made 3.6M plays
on Spotify throughout all available territories and it generated 15k USD. So there’s de nitely some sort of problem there. The other thing can
be where the streams came from? Potentially if its a territory other than the US maybe the play rates may be lower but looking at the above, I
see a lot of plays on the US side. Let’s hope for the best here.

REPLY
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 Ali e m
June 2 2 , 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 1 0 9 4 )

Managing an indie artist through Symphonic and I can tell you that Q1 rates you just released are ridiculous. By previous estimates the
Spotify payout should have been around $400 with 98% USA plays and streams at about 200,000. This payout was just about $175….

REPLY

An on ym ou s
June 2 6 , 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 1 3 0 1 )

You may be getting ripped o . While the avg spotify per play rate is dropping it seems, it is certainly not down to .001. Jorge’s post puts
him right around the .004/stream rate which is what I’m still getting, too.

REPLY

Jor ge - Sym p h on i c D is t r i bu tion

July 3 1 , 2 0 17 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 2 9 2 4 )

Just seeing this now. I’d love to look into your account more in detail here Aliem…. perhaps, if you have an issue, feel free to report it
directly to me at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) and we can check out the originals and clarify any confusion.

REPLY

An on ym ou s
June 2 1 , 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 1 0 3 8 )

Geez, that’s what YouTube pays (when YouTube pays at all, of course (which it doesn’t if your video/song is the slightest bit controversial)).

REPLY

m u s ician
June 2 2 , 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 1 0 4 9 )

streaming is the new scheme which sheists artists out of money. should put albums in download only services, such as itunes but not apple
music. then the only way people can get the song is paying 99 cents.

REPLY

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 w r on g
June 2 2 , 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 1 0 6 1 )

wrong

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h u m an
June 2 2 , 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 1 0 5 0 )

why do you need to pay for a song when for 9.99 per month on various services, you can listen all day long every day to endless numbers of
songs? well then dont put the song on the streaming service.

REPLY

PG
June 2 2 , 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 1 0 5 1 )

The artist should ditch streaming and live o the $57 from downloads.

REPLY

s t op s m ok i n g bad w e e d
June 2 2 , 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 1 0 5 3 )

ahahahhahahhahahha

REPLY

s t op s m oki n g bad w e e d
June 2 2 , 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 1 0 5 2 )

quite impossible he or she has so little downloads and so much streams, the scam is not spotify or tunecore, the scam is the artist here,
probably bought that streamify crap thing lmao.. just fuck o already with this anti spotify propaganda

Tunecore is legit as fuck, maybe not cheap but they are the best.

REPLY

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 r om e
Sept e m b er 5, 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 4 8 0 0 )

until they kick you claiming your streams are fraud cause your not jay z…i was told spotify reported me for streaming abuse yet i was able
to put up the same album tunecore booted out with a new distributor and spotify accepted it AGAIN so how was i reported by them and
they accepted to same album tunecore claimed they reported…….just be aware

REPLY

CH
Sept e m b er 23, 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 5 6 3 8 )

Good point

REPLY

Ju s t An oth e r V oi ce
June 2 2 , 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 1 0 5 5 )

It’s likely a Tunecore payment bug, but that this artist is distributed by Tunecore shines a light on something artists should keep in mind when
selecting a distributor. Some distributors who don’t participate in the revenues generated by their distributed artists (by taking a percentage of
revenues generated) aren’t incentivized to ght hard for the best possible rates from the services. Unless/until artists become much more
aware about how digital royalties are actually generated at streaming services (and where value in these deals can be hidden) why would
anyone expect for Tunecore to care (or their parent company Believe Digital care) about pushing for every possible penny at the negotiating
table? Artists and the press are content to blame it on Spotify and meanwhile Tunecore is making their upfront delivery fee from hundreds of
thousands of artists.

It’s not revolutionary thinking: you get what you pay for in life.

Tunecore – and some others but TC is by far the largest – only makes THEIR money when they agree to a license. So, while Tunecore is an easy
and inexpensive solution to get to market the artist should be wondering who is really pro ting and who is really the priority for the people
agreeing to these license terms.

REPLY

D avidB
June 2 2 , 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 1 0 6 3 )

On these gures, Spotify is paying out less than .2 of a US cent per stream. A couple of years ago they claimed in their ‘transparency’ statement
that on average they paid out between .6 and .8 of a cent per stream. In their update of that statement last year they quietly dropped any
reference to a gure (not so transparent now, hey.) So either their previous statement was BS, or their payments per stream really have
plummeted, or there is some glitch in this particular set of gures. I notice that the pay-per-play on Apple Music is only slightly higher, which is
surprising as Apple is paid-only, with no freeloaders to drag down the average.

REPLY
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Re d B u t ton s
June 2 2 , 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 1 0 6 4 )

This article does not mention if the artist owned 100% of the master or if they own 100% of the publishing??
If they own 100% of both then their gross should be at least 12K-15K and maybe higher.
They also do not mention what the 4 million Spotify plays generated in performing rights royalties???

REPLY

P au l Re s n ik of f (h ttps :/ /w w w .di gi tal m u s icn e w s .com / au th or / p r e s n i kof f / )

June 2 2 , 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 1 0 7 3 )

Owns 100% of everything: publishing + recording

REPLY

Ch r i s
Sept e m b er 1, 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 4 4 2 3 )

So what is being represented here is 100% of publishing , since they should be collecting quite a bit more via sound exchange. Not
exactly the ‘full picture’.

REPLY

An d r e w R obi n s on
Apri l 2 3 , 2 019 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 3 6 8 5 1 3 )

I’m glad someone caught this, because I was thinking the same thing. If they own 100% of the composition and 100% of the recording, not
only would they be getting money from tune core but if they registered thier song through a PRO you’d also get performance royalties and
further more if you register with Harry Fox you could get that mechanical license money as well. So theres also a possibility that Artist X
doesnt know all the ways they can retrieve their royalties

REPLY

S t e ve M cQ u e e n
June 2 2 , 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 1 0 7 2 )

Why are we continually picking at streaming when old radio still does not pay royalties against their respective ad revenue?

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 P au l Re s n ik of f (h ttps :/ /w w w .di gi tal m u s icn e w s .com / au th or / p r e s n i kof f / )
June 2 2 , 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 1 0 7 4 )

Clari cation:

*US* terrestrial radio doesn’t pay on *recordings* but does pay on publishing.

REPLY

J im
July 3 1 , 2 0 17 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 2 9 3 4 )

Yup.

Radio doesn’t pay mechanical royalties.

Also, companies who buy ads on radio don’t have to pay any type of sales tax for the ad time they’re buying. Why is it that ads aren’t
taxable, on radio, tv, magazines and newspapers?

REPLY

Joh n B ye r s - Hayn e s
June 2 2 , 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 1 0 7 8 )

This “indie artist” is using a payola service. 2,565,286 alleged streams in February and they can only sell 1 album and 12 tracks? And they sell
the same amount in March when they allegedly have over a million streams? FAKE NEWS.

REPLY

n oob z
June 2 2 , 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 1 0 8 4 )

not payola.. even worse. Bots services like streamify … Whack. All of these are freemium spins, look in april he has 30 streams lol. This guy is
a joke and is crying he invested probably over 2k $ on fake streams and thought he’s gonna get a lot more

REPLY

Cr e ator of th e Au di o Pr ote ction D e vice . .. Privacy - Terms

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June 2 5 , 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 1 2 3 2 )

What’s disgusting to me is the fact I’ve come up with a solution to music piracy…and am o ering complete control over sales and distribution.
So far, I’ve ran it past Universal, Sony, Warner, Big Machine, and Blackened Records…NONE of them have even bothered to take an interest.
They apparently don’t care about their artists income. They cash in on licensing deals, and the artists get hosed. But, if the musicians don’t take
an interest in a legitimate solution either, then perhaps my attempt is futile.

REPLY

Le s t it be ove r l ook e d ...

June 2 5 , 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 1 2 3 8 )

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2017/06/secret-lives-of-playlists.html (http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2017/06/secret-lives-of-
playlists.html)

REPLY

Le s t it be ove r l ook e d ...

June 2 6 , 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 1 2 9 3 )

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2017/06/believe-digital-aggressively-seeks-sale-major-players-show-interest-exclusive.html
(http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2017/06/believe-digital-aggressively-seeks-sale-major-players-show-interest-exclusive.html)

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2017/06/tunecore-nears-1-billion-in-payments-to-indie-artists-o ers-free-track-distribution-to-
celebrate-.html (http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2017/06/tunecore-nears-1-billion-in-payments-to-indie-artists-o ers-free-track-distribution-
to-celebrate-.html)

One, two, three…

REPLY

Le s t it be ove r l ook e d...

June 2 6 , 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 1 3 3 1 )

Interestingly, Apple requires “[a]t least 20 albums in your catalog,” among other things, in order to work directly with Apple, otherwise, an
independent artist has to go to an “Apple-approved aggregator.” In view of the information contained in the three articles I have set out
above, as well as recent DMN articles, I leave it to you to draw your own conclusions:

https://itunesconnect.apple.com/WebObjects/iTunesConnect.woa/wa/digitalContractsSignup?ccTypeId=3&existingUser=No
(https://itunesconnect.apple.com/WebObjects/iTunesConnect.woa/wa/digitalContractsSignup?ccTypeId=3&existingUser=No)

REPLY

N u m b e r s d on ' t l ie Privacy - Terms

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June 2 6 , 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 1 3 2 3 )

This is a very easy thing to track unless this artist have landed a placement on a HUGE curated Spotify playlist he obviously bought streams in
Feb-Mars 2017!

REPLY

M at t L
July 9 , 2 0 1 7 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 1 9 0 5 )

The $$ pool is not growing, yet there are always more “ shes” (songs/artists) added-in, deluting the share (%) one can expect to get.
The fundamental issue is what is being charged for content access. Streaming can work but not if everything is available for free, or at
ridiculously low fees ($0.99 for unlimited acces for months). It is a dumbest economic model: paying structure vs. a free substitute. Scarcity
drives value, so make people want music again, and stop giving it away while wondering why no one pays for it.

REPLY

Ch r i s .
July 3 1 , 2 0 17 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 2 9 1 1 )

For reference – I manage an artist who very recently clocked 1.6 Million Spotify streams…. For those ammount of plays the revenue generated
was £5430.38 – Distibution company – Ditto.

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W ack ojacko
Augu s t 3 1 , 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 4 3 5 4 )

Well, i did the math with my average per stream income owning all the rights.

Only minus i distribute for free so the distributor gets a piece of the pie also.
But that’s oure own choice, you can also pay 10$ a track and get 100% of royalties.
So 4,294,962 streams would roughly equal 17200,-$!

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J .D .
Octo b e r 2 4, 2017 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 2 9 6 6 1 6 )

Who do you distribute through?

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Privacy - Terms
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s om e d i s t r i bu t i on gu y
July 2 9 , 2 0 18 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 3 0 7 4 1 7 )

I run a boutique distribution network myself. So I guess I can give you real facts and numbers on what Tunescore (and most other distribution
companies) do.

Live data from within our network show ‘Artist Y’ (I chose one with similar plays) has 3.843.351 plays on Spotify. Payout amount is 7.059,42€ =
8.386,76$ (that’s what we paid to ‘Artist Y’).

Thats a 0.0028$/play rate.

From this we calculate what Tunecore should be paying to ‘Artist X’:

0.0028$ x 4.294.962 = 12.025$ (!!)

Given that the numbers from my distribution network contain a distribution fee, Tunecore (who charge upfront fees) should be paying 100%
royalties to ‘Artist X’, which makes about 13.350$

So, Tunecore: where are the remaining 8.000$ you stole from your artist? Why do you charge your clients ‘upfront fees’ AND a 60% distribution
fee on top, despite your advertisements and contracts saying something di erent? And that does not only count for Tunecore, the list of fraud
in the distribution sector is endless.

That’s the reason why we (a bunch of artists and labels together) created our own distribution system – this rip-o has to stop!

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An on ym ou s
July 2 9 , 2 0 18 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 3 0 7 4 2 1 )

calc error: it should be 0.00218$/play and a total of 10.402,00$ due from Tunecore to ‘Artist Y’ (my anger about this repeated theft carried
me away and copy/pasted wrong numbers).

So, Tunecore: 10.402,00$ due instead of 5.077,00$ = 50% distribution fee on top!!

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Hps cafe
Sept e m b er 18, 2018 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 3 1 6 2 3 3 )

Well since he owns 100% of his copyright. It might actually be HARDER. For someone to get all their royalties doing it all by themselves. Most of
his streams are foreign so if he hasn’t registered with other societies outside the US then that may be the reason for their royalties not being
collected. Which is why it’s better to work with Publishing companies that are associated with other societies globally then doing all of it
yourself. Especially if you’re mechanical royalties. Songtrust only takes 15% which isn’t a bad deal considering that major labels usually take 30-
50%.

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Privacy - Terms
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 An d r e w R obi n s on
Apri l 2 3 , 2 019 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 3 6 8 5 1 5 )

Ditto… if someone does it by themselves they would have to register under so many PROs which is what a publisher does. It’s easy to
distribute your music to a site that’s going to put it through to all the streaming companies but if you dont claim the performance royalties,
or mechanical royalties then you lose out on that money because tunexore won’t get that money for you. Tune core and distrokid are
distributors more than anything. So spotify and these other streaming sites are making bank when you have tons of indy artist doing it on
their own and dont register their songs through a PRO as well

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An on ym ou s
Febr u a r y 22, 2019 (htt p s : / / www.digitalmusicnews.com/201 7 / 0 6 / 2 1 / s p o t i f y - m i l l i o n - r o y a l t y - i n d i e- t u n e c o r e / # c o m m e n t - 3 5 4 5 9 4 )

I got paid 1333 for 500k stream plays but my music got taken down for some reason

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