Streaming is the best path of monetization for creators and artists in the industry today.
But creators rarely work in a silo — instead, they collaborate with other creators or pay agents, managers, distributors, vendors, digital marketing professionals, or other people on their teams. When there are multiple hands in the pot, splitting streaming earnings can be a confusing practice.
So how can content creators, music artists, and streamers quickly and easily share revenue that’s earned from their favorite streaming platforms? Let’s dive in to where and how revenue is coming in from and address any solutions available to creators.
What streaming platforms are creators earning money from?
Until very recently in the zeitgeist of content creation, creators found one channel and they stuck to it. They earned the majority of their revenue from a single platform and earned additional income off platform in the form of sponsorships, live performances, and merch sales.
But times have changed; it no longer pays to be a one-trick pony. In fact, cross-platform collaboration is imperative to growing a creator business. Musicians, artists, streamers, influencers — anyone who creates online — is bringing in revenue from multiple streams. These may include:
YouTube monetization
- YouTube videos
- Monetized YouTube channel
- YouTube shorts
- Involvement in the YouTube Partner Program (YPP)
- YouTube’s ad revenue (via AdSense)
- Live streams with super chat enabled for additional monetization
Twitch
- Live streams
- Paid sponsorships
- Affiliate marketing
- Paid channel memberships
- Subscription revenue
TikTok
- Payment for number of views
- Paid partnerships with brands
Spotify
- Royalties
- Stream Share
- Merch sales
- Podcasts
These streaming platforms only just begin to scratch the surface of the possible outlets for creatives and artists. Now that we understand where revenue is coming in from, keep reading to understand the nuances of streaming revenue:
Revenue Sharing 101: How Streaming Earnings are Collected
It is crucial to learn how streaming revenue is calculated before getting deeper into the process of splitting earnings.
For artists and musicians, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube revenue sharing use a pro-rata system. This means that earnings by subscriber are collected, then artists or creators are paid depending on the ratio of streams they get to the total streams on the platform.
For video-based or livestream-based platforms, the model is similar but depends on a few other factors that vary by platform.
Different Elements of Streaming Revenue
- 1. Total Streams: How often the track is played.
- 2. Stream Share: The amount of the overall streaming that is given to a particular artist or track.
- 3. Payout Rate: The term CPC stands for Cost Per Click. It means that the payment is made per stream and differs from platform to platform and country to country.
- 4. Revenue Pool: The combined total subscription and advertising revenue.
- 5. Watch hours/watch time: The combined time viewers have spent watching a video, including replays and rewatches (naturally, long-form videos tend to earn more revenue than short-form videos).
3 Key Strategies for an Efficient Revenue Split of Streaming Earnings
Sharing of profits between the collaborators can be a very simple approach if there are agreed terms at the time of collaboration.
Establish Clear Agreements
It is always important to consult any and all collaborators, producers, songwriters, artists, or other stakeholders to understand how you will split the earnings before releasing any project, be it a video, song, album, or other creative endeavor. It’s recommended that this agreement be put in writing to avoid any future misunderstandings.
- Common revenue split ratios
- Equal Split: Equal split means that all collaborators will get equal amount.
- Percentage Split: The percentage split is based on contribution. For example: in the music industry, this breaks out to 40% main artist, 30% producer, 20% songwriter, 10% featured artist.
Employ a Digital Split Sheet
A digital split sheet is an online tool which assists to record the splitting process and earnings division. These tools assist in making the process run smoothly and give all stakeholders their due share at the right time.
We’ll expand on a solution creators can use to document every project they work on and the agreed-upon split terms below.
Check on Revenue Health
Stream statistics and cash reports should be checked on regularly. It’s important to understand money earned and money sent to make healthy financial decisions for growing a creator’s business.
Knowing how to split revenue is imperative to healthy collaborations between artists, streamers, and YouTube creators. Ensure you maximize the profits you’re earning so you have more to share between stakeholders with the following strategies:
5 Strategies to Maximize Your Streaming Profits
Let’s take a look on how to divide the earnings properly and find ways to make solid profits while streaming.
Stay Up On Channel Health
The amount of money that you earn increases with the number of streams you are able to create.
- Promote Your Music or Creator Business: Via social media, your email list, and your website to advertise new releases or content. Interact with your viewers and followers with the help of live streaming, Q&A, and exclusive content via platforms like Patreon.
- Collaborate with Other Creators: Collaborations can help spread your work to other people who may be interested in it. Collaborate with creators in related or even completely different verticals to attract a larger audience.
- Playlist Placements: With big playlist placements, your songs can garner a lot of streams. Share your music with playlist curation teams and enlist the services of SubmitHub where you can send your songs.
Optimize Your Release Strategy
Timing and consistency are crucial in the streaming world. Here’s how to optimize your release strategy
- Regular Releases: The circulation of content keeps audiences engaged. It’s worth continuing to continue releasing songs, EPs, albums, videos, streams, and other content regularly.
- Pre-Save Campaigns: Promote your future projects and invite fans to pre-save them for themselves.
Leverage Data
With the help of streaming platform analytics, you’ll be able to identify your target market’s demographics and behavior. Most streaming platforms provide information about listeners’ or subscribers’ ages, regions of residence, and behaviors. Analyze this data to create better marketing plans to reach more people in your audience.
Diversify Your Revenue Streams
Streaming revenue comes from many income sources, but it can be further diversified from there. Diversify your income by exploring additional revenue sharing streams:
- Merchandising: Physical goods like clothing or beauty items, physical albums or vinyl records, or other tangible items can be a strong complement to the content you create.
- Live Performances: Host live performances. Promotion will up your earnings substantially and give you opportunities to sell merchandise and other exclusive content.
- Licensing and Sync Deals: This involves selling rights in your music, content, or streams to the producers of TV shows, filmmakers, production companies and video games, as well as brands or marketing agencies.
Stay Up On Channel Health
Violating community guidelines, running up against copyright claims, or refusing to meet important eligibility requirements of a streaming platform can cost you more than you’ll earn. It’s important that everything you create or release meets these important qualifications so the algorithm favors your output and puts it in front of more people.
Another way to maintain channel health is to remove bots from your subscriber count. While their interactions may boost engagement, streaming platforms are smart enough to know when an account belongs to a real person or not.
Finally, ensure your content is high-quality — both audio and visual — so you have a better chance of improving the aforementioned elements of streaming income like watch time and streams. Tutorials exist online for anyone looking to improve the health of their streams.
Splitting Streaming Earnings Has Never Been Easier With mozaic
Revenue sharing between collaborators who leverage streaming platforms for income is tricky business. It’s why there hasn’t been a thorough solution on the market… until now.
mozaic is the first global split payments platform designed for creators. Anyone who is earning income online — be it via music streams, live streams, social media content creation, and more — can use mozaic to pay their collaborators quickly and fairly.
Learn more about mozaic here and schedule a meeting with our team.
