Royalties for Streaming?

Dunno. Personally, I'm not in it for the money. I do it for the adulation of the masses, the groupies, and the rock star lifestyle.
 
Yeah don't get me wrong I don't do it for that reason either, but at the same time it sucks if sites like soundcloud (they just got 100 mil in funding and an ipo planned) are doing this on the backs of artists who never get paid b/c they don't know they're supposed to...
 
Beat me to it, Gecko.
PRS is the UK collection agency, although they do international agreements too. They made a big deal of being the first to make an agreement with Soundcloud.
I've never seen it in my distributions and don't expect to, but I get 50p a quarter or so from Spotify.
I had to go back and check, though. I'm only ever interested in radio.


Hey Nola,
It's well and good asking if they pay out, but are you registered with a royalty collection agency and do you know who they deal with and what they cover?
 
Hey Nola,
It's well and good asking if they pay out, but are you registered with a royalty collection agency and do you know who they deal with and what they cover?

Hi Steen. No I'm not registered with anyone. I never even though about it, but I was watching a different video on youtube (about a guitar technique thing) and youtube recommended that video for some reason. It made me a bit annoyed that SC and other sites were collecting money and doing IPOs on the backs of artists and knowingly not paying them.

I think I have like 2500-3000 total SC plays since I joined a year ago so i'm not sure it's worth registering with anyone.

The guy in that video does another video and in that one he says that BMI and ASCAP all were under-representing plays by as much as 80%. He referenced TuneStat as the source of that study. It seems like there's a lot of weird stuff going on. Like even if you sign up for one of those agencies, they misrepresent the figures??
 
I haven't found one real submission site nor those streaming distributors to be anything else but crooks. The worst one is the Orchard Music Group because they are stealing peoples music off of youtube and claiming it at thiers. You tube shuts down the video but orchard doesn't post the vid after they steal it from the artist. This has been going on for the past two years or so......


Please, Please, copyright your stuff before it goes anywhere. If you guys don't have a tutorial on how to fill out thier paper work, maybe m or someon can start that thread and sticky it.
 
Hi Steen. No I'm not registered with anyone. I never even though about it, but I was watching a different video on youtube (about a guitar technique thing) and youtube recommended that video for some reason. It made me a bit annoyed that SC and other sites were collecting money and doing IPOs on the backs of artists and knowingly not paying them.

I think I have like 2500-3000 total SC plays since I joined a year ago so i'm not sure it's worth registering with anyone.

The guy in that video does another video and in that one he says that BMI and ASCAP all were under-representing plays by as much as 80%. He referenced TuneStat as the source of that study. It seems like there's a lot of weird stuff going on. Like even if you sign up for one of those agencies, they misrepresent the figures??

This area of the industry is changing every day but questioning if/how they pay, and setting up the mechanisms for getting paid are two very different concerns.

Youtube, for example, seem to have separate arrangements with different publishers which is why one of your cover videos will be taken down, another will be blocked in Germany, and another will be monetised via ads.
I don't believe anyone gets performing rights royalties for material on youtube, although I'm not certain about that.
In cases where videos are monetised the publisher is getting the money one way or other - I'm just not sure if it goes through a royalty collection agency or not.

Either way, registering with a performing rights organisation is very much your responsibility.
It's impossible to accurately distribute everything that's owed to every individual artist in many cases, so we get an average. If you're not in, you don't get it.
In cases where an average is taken and artist names aren't recorded, royalty collection agencies have no way of knowing that they 'should' be paying you.
That's certainly how it works where broad licenses for music use are paid, as with most commercial radio stations, for example.

Of course, other areas are specifically reported and the person who is owed gets paid by name.
That's how census radio works and, I guess, Soundcloud?

It's a complicated enough system but the bottom line is if you aren't in, no one's going to come looking for you.

All of that said, a few thousand soundcloud plays will most likely generate pence at best, although I appreciate that's not why you're asking.

As far as I know, PRS won't backdate for works which weren't registered at the time of use so, if you think there's any chance of radio play or commercial use, it's worth registering as you go just incase.
I don't know for sure if the US agencies work the same way, but it seems likely.
 
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Thanks, Steen, informative stuff. Have you ever heard of or tried TuneSat? Apparently they fingerprint the song and then collect all royalties on it not just the average. I don't know if that's true.
 
That looks great although it's a shame there's a need.
I don't understand how, in 2016, every instance of every song played isn't recorded and reported.

Even when they are reported on a song by song basis, the chances of actually getting paid are very slim, in my limited experience.
I have, in the past, had to send databases of dates, times, radio hosts etc to PRS to claim payment and.....well...they didn't make it easy.

They also pay a much lower rate for anything that's backdated, although they say they don't.
The cheque they finally sent me after months of bitching says they do, or they got really REALLY fed up of hearing from me. lol

I think it's ridiculous but it is what it is. At least there's some awareness and progress happening.


edit:
I wonder if Soundmouse, in the UK, is a similar thing?
I was told that it was essential to sign up with soundmouse after we got commercially playlisted a few times.
Hey Paul - Here's why we didn't pay you! :facepalm:
 
BMI, at least, is free to join (for US residents at least), but unless you're in the top 10%, you don't see any royalty payments from them. If you preform your own songs live, you can enter your performances on their database and get paid for them that way (assuming the places you pay have their BMI license in place).

BTW, there are places that steal from Soundcloud as well, so I don't leave songs that are available for streaming elsewhere on SC any more.
 
BMI, at least, is free to join (for US residents at least), but unless you're in the top 10%, you don't see any royalty payments from them.

Are you sure?
Sounds like I'm being pedantic but live performance payments are royalty payments. The venues pay a license (here) and are supposed to report live acts, as far as I know.
I find it hard to believe that they just won't pay you for radio play if you're not in top 10%, although in the UK the majority of commercial stations seem to operate a sample basis, where they report usage on spot days each month rather than daily, and then pay out some kind of average.
If you aren't played on a sample day you aren't on the books, as far as I know, so maybe you guys don't have an equivalent system and they just pay out to whoever is on the playlists or something?
 
In the US all radio stations must keep a running log of all songs played, but how BMI and ASCAP determine who gets royalties for radio play is not something I know details of. Maybe it's only 1%, or maybe 20% of the artists, but it's sure not a majority.
 
Are you guys thinking of this?

"If the total amount of royalties earned from all sources in any quarterly distribution is less than $250.00,
BMI will hold the amount earned in the affiliate’s account until subsequent quarterly earnings in that year bring the total to $250.00 or more,
when the accumulated money will be paid.

However, in no event will BMI hold any such accumulated royalties beyond the final distribution of the calendar year in which they otherwise would have been paid, provided that the royalties that have accumulated equal at least $25.00. Due to the cost of distributing negligible royalties, if the total amount of royalties earned from all sources in any calendar year is less than $25.00, no payment will be made and no royalty statement will be rendered."

PRS have a lower distribution limit too, but I don't think they write off your balance after a year.
 
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