PLEASE NOTE: This feature is currently in Early Access. Please contact us if you would like us to enable it on your account.
What are splits?
Instead of all your royalties going into one account, you can automatically "split" the royalties with your collaborators.
Who should use splits?
If you're in a band and trust each other, or you've agreed to reinvest all your earnings back into the music, you probably don't need to worry about setting up splits.
Say you're in a group with 4 people, and set up splits:
It will take you 4 times as long to reach the $25 withdrawal limit
When you each have enough to withdraw, you'll pay small transaction and f/x fees to payment providers on 4 payments instead of one.
In this scenario, it's probably easier and more cost-effective for one member to withdraw to their account and share it with the others.
But if, for example, it's a producer who you have a more formal relationship with, it may be easier and more transparent just to set up those splits. You won't have to worry about manually paying that collaborator a couple of times a year as they'll be able to withdraw their share themselves.
What type of royalties am I splitting?
Before setting up splits with a collaborator, please check what type of royalties you've agreed to split with them. You don't want to be giving them a cut of your mechanical royalties that they're not entitled to!
We collect Mechanical Royalties for its artists. These are the types of royalties earned when your tracks are played on streaming platforms (e.g. Spotify) or purchased on digital stores (e.g. iTunes). We do not collect publishing royalties or any royalties for public performance (when your music is played in bars, restaurants or on radio etc.), sync (adverts, movies, TV shows) or print (sheet music etc.).
Can I set up Splits on releases that have already earned royalties?
Yes, it is possible to set up Splits for your old releases, but your balance will not be split with your contributors retro-actively. Your current available balance and current pending funds will not be shared with your splits recipients; we'll only start splitting the royalties for your next batch of pending funds.
You'll need to manually work out how to divide the current earnings amongst yourselves.
Example: Assuming I've just set up Splits on February 15, and I'm sharing all my royalties on all tracks 50/50 with a contributor:
1. I'll make a note of the available balance (€10) and the pending balance (€20) now for a total of €30.
2. On/After February 20, I'll withdraw €30 and send 50% to my contributor manually (cash, bank transfer, PayPal etc.)
3. From this point onwards, our royalties will be split automatically by us. My contributor should see a pending balance in their account for 20 March 2022.
How to set up splits
You can set up Splits from the distribution page. Once you've submitted your release, and its status has changed to IN PROGRESS, a new Royalty Splits tab will appear.
2. Splits are set up individually for each track. Hit the edit button on the track you want to add splits for.
3. Enter the details of your collaborator(s) and add what percentage of the royalties they are due on this track. As the account holder, you don't need to add yourself. You will need to add all the collaborators at once, as you can't change the splits allocation once you've submitted it.
Make sure you triple-check the email addresses are correct!
4. Click Save.
5. Check over the splits for this track. If they're correct, hit submit. If they need further changes, hit the edit button.
6. Your collaborator will now receive an email detailing their cut of the royalties for this track. They can then follow the instructions to start receiving royalties.
Ready to get started?