artemist on Nostr: npub1qruzz…r8lu4 npub1c57hf…rawu5 Just as a music listener I've tried to figure ...
npub1qruzzk4l49ht50202u0kgtdyhtvknqqwpvdtu2m4csd2hww5x7hshr8lu4 (npub1qru…8lu4) npub1c57hfwynxkarccttpyc4k9j42nsec2ccpl4aye8n3ernm5cv7jyqrrawu5 (npub1c57…awu5) Just as a music listener I've tried to figure out how it works and it's a huge mess.
Most of the services will take almost any music but they don't want to deal with artists directly, so they have a list of allowed distributors that they've authorized to submit music and metadata. Artists have to pay to get their music submitted through a distributor.
The distributors are too small to negotiate recording royalty payments, so those are negotiated by Merlin Network Limited and the money is funneled through them and the distributor before it gets to the artist.
Countries also have separate statutory royalties for songwriters, which Merlin won't deal with and distributors won't collect unless you pay them extra. In the US there's the Mechanical Licensing Collective for mechanical royalties and SoundExchange for performance royalties. I don't really understand how those work except that apparently there's a difference between a listener choosing a track and the platform automatically choosing a track for the listener.
Most of the services will take almost any music but they don't want to deal with artists directly, so they have a list of allowed distributors that they've authorized to submit music and metadata. Artists have to pay to get their music submitted through a distributor.
The distributors are too small to negotiate recording royalty payments, so those are negotiated by Merlin Network Limited and the money is funneled through them and the distributor before it gets to the artist.
Countries also have separate statutory royalties for songwriters, which Merlin won't deal with and distributors won't collect unless you pay them extra. In the US there's the Mechanical Licensing Collective for mechanical royalties and SoundExchange for performance royalties. I don't really understand how those work except that apparently there's a difference between a listener choosing a track and the platform automatically choosing a track for the listener.