Answers/Verified numbers & open data
Open data
Verified Numbers & Open Royalty Data
Two things live on this page. First, every fee and threshold this site states, with the primary source and the date it was last checked — so you can see exactly how stale any figure is. Second, the measured per-play payout rates from my own complete royalty history, published openly because almost nobody publishes theirs.
Every fee on this site was checked against the organisation's own website, on the date shown beside it. ASCAP is free for a writer account, and free for a writer and publisher account applied for together; $50 applies only to a publisher account added on its own. BMI is free for songwriters and charges a one-time publisher processing fee it no longer publishes the amount of. The MLC and SoundExchange are free to join. The MLC pays about 75 days after each monthly usage period, with US payout minimums of $5 by ACH, $100 by check and $250 by wire.
What does each organisation actually charge?
Every figure below was read off the organisation's own website on the date in the last column. Fees move. If you are reading this months later, treat the date as the honest expiry on the number and check the source link before you pay anything.
| Item | Value | Primary source | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| My catalog, verified plays used for every rate on this site | 677,639 plays, $3,081.30, 38,691 royalty lines — Facebook Rights Manager matches excluded | source | September 1, 2026 |
| Adobe Creative Cloud Pro (all apps), individual | US$69.99/mo, annual billed monthly | source | September 1, 2026 |
| Adobe Premiere, single app | US$22.99/mo, annual billed monthly | source | September 1, 2026 |
| Adobe After Effects, single app | US$22.99/mo, annual billed monthly | source | September 1, 2026 |
| CapCut free tier | Free to use, no credit card required | source | September 1, 2026 |
| MLC historical unmatched royalties, current value | $397,286,418.71 across 21 DSPs | source | September 1, 2026 |
| MLC historical unmatched royalties, initial transfer value (2021) | Approximately $427 million, reduced to ~$397M after CRB rate finalisation | source | September 1, 2026 |
| MLC historical royalties matched and distributed, by early 2024 | More than $25 million | source | September 1, 2026 |
| ASCAP writer membership | Free | source | September 14, 2026 |
| ASCAP writer and publisher, joined at the same time | Free | source | September 14, 2026 |
| ASCAP publisher membership, added on its own | $50 one-time, non-refundable | source | September 14, 2026 |
| BMI songwriter/composer affiliation | Free | source | September 1, 2026 |
| BMI publisher affiliation | Amount not published. BMI's join page requires “a credit card issued by a U.S. bank for payment of a one-time processing fee” but states no figure, and neither BMI publisher agreement PDF contains one. | source | September 1, 2026 |
| The MLC membership | Free | source | August 31, 2026 |
| The MLC payout minimum, US, ACH direct deposit | $5 | source | August 31, 2026 |
| The MLC payout minimum, US, physical check | $100 | source | August 31, 2026 |
| The MLC payout minimum, US, wire transfer | $250 | source | August 31, 2026 |
| The MLC payment timing | About 75 days after the end of each monthly usage period | source | August 31, 2026 |
| SoundExchange registration | Free to register. Payment thresholds ARE published: direct deposit monthly at $100 accrued, quarterly at $10; quarterly check at $100. | source | September 4, 2026 |
| US Copyright Office, Single Application | $45 | source | August 31, 2026 |
| US Copyright Office, Standard Application | $65 | source | August 31, 2026 |
| US Copyright Office, Group Registration of Works on an Album of Music | $65 | source | August 31, 2026 |
| US Copyright Office, Group Registration of Unpublished Works | $85 | source | August 31, 2026 |
| DistroKid Musician | $24.99 per year | source | August 31, 2026 |
| DistroKid Musician Plus | $44.99 per year | source | August 31, 2026 |
| DistroKid Ultimate | $89.99 per year | source | August 31, 2026 |
| TuneCore Rising Artist | $24.99 per year | source | August 31, 2026 |
| TuneCore Breakout Artist | $44.99 per year | source | August 31, 2026 |
| TuneCore Professional | $54.99 per year | source | August 31, 2026 |
| CD Baby single | $9.99 one-time, no annual fee | source | August 31, 2026 |
| CD Baby album | $14.99 one-time, no annual fee | source | August 31, 2026 |
| Splice Sounds+ | $12.99 per month, 100 credits | source | August 31, 2026 |
| Splice Creator | $19.99 per month, 200 credits | source | August 31, 2026 |
| Splice Creator+ | $39.99 per month, 500 credits | source | August 31, 2026 |
| Splice credit expiry after cancelling | 28 days after the final billing period ends | source | August 31, 2026 |
| Splice licence after cancelling | Perpetual. Downloaded sounds remain licensed. | source | August 31, 2026 |
| ASCAP retroactive credit for performances before a work was registered | Up to one survey year, on request via a Performance Claims message in Member Access | source | September 7, 2026 |
| BMI late work registration payment window | Paid from the first possible distribution after processing, if received within nine months after the distribution that would have paid it; adjustment claims older than nine months not considered; no retroactive adjustment for publisher assignments reported late | source | September 7, 2026 |
| SoundExchange look-back and expiry of unclaimed royalties | Collects as far back as 3 years; unclaimed royalties expire after 3 years | source | September 7, 2026 |
| The MLC statutory holding period for unmatched and unclaimed royalties | Minimum 3 years under the Music Modernization Act; first market-share distributions planned for early 2027 starting with January 2021 usage; less than $7 million remained from January 2021 as of the January 2026 distribution | source | September 7, 2026 |
| The MLC historical royalties (2007-2020), matched and distributed | Approximately $397 million transferred; over $317 million matched; over $229 million distributed | source | September 7, 2026 |
| Splice x Ableton Live plan | $12.99 per month, Live 12.3 or later, up to 100 sounds per day licensed inside Live without credits, 100 one-time intro credits, 7-day free trial | source | September 7, 2026 |
| Splice Bridge plugin DAW support | Free VST3/AU plugin with Sounds+, Creator and Creator+; officially tested on Ableton Live 10+, Logic Pro X 10.5+, Studio One 5+, FL Studio 20.8+, GarageBand 10.4+ | source | September 7, 2026 |
| Splice Sounds plugin (beta) requirements | VST3 and AU; macOS 12+ or Windows 10+; included with Sounds+, Creator, Creator+ and legacy Sounds plans, not INSTRUMENT | source | September 7, 2026 |
| Sweetwater Card promotional financing | 0% APR with 48 equal monthly payments on qualifying purchases of $449 or more; 0% APR with 24 or 36 equal monthly payments on $349 or more; varies by brand | source | September 7, 2026 |
| Sweetwater Card default offer | No interest if paid in full within 6 months; otherwise interest charged on the promo balance from the purchase date | source | September 7, 2026 |
| Sweetwater Card standard rates, new accounts as of 07/31/2025 | Purchase APR 34.99%, penalty APR 39.99%, minimum interest charge $2 (Synchrony Bank) | source | September 7, 2026 |
| Sweetwater Easy Payments | 3 payments: $100 minimum, $10 processing fee. 6 payments: $400 minimum, $15 fee. No hard credit check; $4,500 maximum outstanding; $15 late fee per missed installment | source | September 7, 2026 |
| YouTube Premium, individual monthly (US) | $15.99 per month; 1-month $0 trial for eligible new members | source | September 14, 2026 |
| YouTube Premium, annual / family / student (US) | $159.99 for 12 months (non-renewing); family $26.99 per month for up to 5 additional household members aged 13+; student $8.99 per month | source | September 14, 2026 |
| YouTube Premium Lite (US) | $8.99 per month; ads may still appear on music content, Shorts and search; no background play or downloads on music content; no YouTube Music Premium | source | September 14, 2026 |
| How YouTube Premium revenue reaches creators | Distributed to creators based on how much Premium members watch their content; majority of revenue to partners; paid at the beginning of each month with ad revenue via AdSense for YouTube | source | September 14, 2026 |
| YouTube Premium creator pools from 1 February 2027 | Creators share in a pool of 30% of net subscription revenue for Premium views and 60% for Premium Lite views | source | September 14, 2026 |
| YouTube Partner Program entry threshold from 1 February 2027 | 1,000 subscribers plus 8,000 qualified watch hours in 365 days, or 20 million qualified Shorts views in 90 days, for new entrants; existing partners not affected | source | September 14, 2026 |
| YouTube Partner Program entry threshold until 31 January 2027 | 1,000 subscribers plus 4,000 qualified watch hours in 12 months, or 10 million qualified Shorts views in 90 days | source | September 14, 2026 |
| YouTube early-access tier (fan funding, Shopping, Creator Partnerships) | 500 subscribers plus 3,000 qualified watch hours in the last year or 3 million qualified Shorts views in 90 days; unchanged in the February 2027 update | source | September 14, 2026 |
| YouTube channel activity rule from 1 February 2027 | Active if 1,000 qualified watch hours in 365 days, or 1 million qualified Shorts views in 90 days, or 2 long-form videos or 5 Shorts uploaded every 90 days; 90-day window to restore | source | September 14, 2026 |
| YouTube Shorts Creator Pool monthly minimum from 1 February 2027 | 10 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days to earn from the pool that month; does not affect YPP status or long-form earnings | source | September 14, 2026 |
| Deadline to accept updated YouTube Partner Program terms | 31 January 2027; unaccepted modules stop earning from 1 February 2027 until accepted, YPP status unaffected | source | September 14, 2026 |
| Date ASCAP suspended the writer application fee | 13 February 2023, described by ASCAP as temporary; no refunds for members who joined earlier | source | September 14, 2026 |
| ASCAP publisher account added later by an existing writer | $50 one-time, non-refundable — the waiver covers only a new writer and publisher joining together | source | September 14, 2026 |
| ASCAP processing fee for check, money order or foreign credit card | $50, in addition to the $50 publisher application fee | source | September 14, 2026 |
What did each platform actually pay per play?
This table is derived from my complete DistroKid bank-details export covering June 2019 to July 2026 — 38,691 verified royalty lines, 48 stores, 178 countries and 674,556 measured plays across the stores shown here. A further 41,302,112 plays on the "Facebook" store ($36.14) are excluded from every figure: they are Rights Manager fingerprint matches to other people's videos, not plays of my songs — how I established that. It is recording-side money only: what a distributor paid for the use of the master. Performance royalties from ASCAP or BMI, mechanical royalties from The MLC and SoundExchange income are three separate pots and appear nowhere in this data.
Rates are normalised for team percentage, so tracks with splits do not understate the platform's rate. Play types are kept separate rather than averaged together, because a paid download and an ad-supported video view are not the same unit. Stores with fewer than 500 measured plays are suppressed as too small to mean anything.
| Platform | Play type | Plays measured | Paid per play | Plays to earn $1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube VEVO Video | Ad-supported video | 2,960 | $0.01129253 | 89 |
| Amazon Unlimited (Streaming) | On-demand audio | 3,156 | $0.01111366 | 90 |
| YouTube (Red) | On-demand audio | 56,479 | $0.00924776 | 108 |
| iHeart Radio | Radio-style | 947 | $0.00856836 | 117 |
| Vevo Video | Ad-supported video | 22,249 | $0.00702788 | 142 |
| Apple Music | On-demand audio | 175,162 | $0.00664378 | 151 |
| Apple Music Video | Ad-supported video | 3,217 | $0.00552279 | 181 |
| YouTube (Ads) | Ad-supported video | 63,426 | $0.00506680 | 197 |
| YouTube (ContentID) | Social / UGC | 2,377 | $0.00379197 | 264 |
| Snap | Social / UGC | 505 | $0.00343723 | 291 |
| Spotify | On-demand audio | 186,519 | $0.00332076 | 301 |
| Pandora | Radio-style | 12,258 | $0.00290844 | 344 |
| TikTok | Social / UGC | 1,412 | $0.00100066 | 999 |
| iTunes Match | Download / sale | 642 | $0.00080827 | 1,237 |
| Musixmatch | Lyrics | 2,488 | $0.00050606 | 1,976 |
| LyricFind | Lyrics | 6,576 | $0.00033009 | 3,029 |
| Luna | Other | 7,077 | $0.00018622 | 5,370 |
| Resso | On-demand audio | 5,375 | $0.00007986 | 12,521 |
| Facebook (Social Media Pack) | Social / UGC | 70,270 | $0.00002552 | 39,189 |
| Youtube Shorts | Social / UGC | 51,461 | $0.00000324 | 308,242 |
What does this data not show?
Four things, and they all matter. It does not show gross platform payouts — these are net amounts that reached my account. It does not show composition-side income, because a distributor never collects it. It is not representative of every artist, because per-play rates are a pro-rata share of a revenue pool and mine reflects my own listener mix and country spread. And it is historical: it covers June 2019 to July 2026 and says nothing about what any platform will pay next year.
I publish my own numbers because the alternative is everybody arguing about somebody's guess. Pull your own export and add it up — it is the single most clarifying afternoon available to an independent artist.
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