Royalties, statements, and reporting delays
Why streaming royalties take months to appear, how to read a SpaceMedia statement, and what to check before reporting missing earnings.
Royalties are not live data. Nobody in music distribution can show you today's earnings, because the stores themselves report months in arrears.
Why the delay exists
Four things happen in sequence, and each takes time:
- The store measures usage over a reporting month.
- The store closes and issues its statement, typically well after that month ends.
- SpaceMedia validates the incoming data, matching each line to the right release, track, and territory.
- The statement appears in your account for the period it covers.
So a stream from January does not appear in January. It appears once the store has reported it and that report has been processed. Every distributor is on the same clock, because it is the stores' clock.
Reading a statement
Check these fields together, because a number on its own means nothing:
| Field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Reporting period | The month the usage happened, not the month you are looking at it. |
| Destination | Each store reports separately and at different rates. |
| Territory | The same stream earns different amounts in different markets. |
| Release or track | Identified by UPC and ISRC, which is what stores report against. |
| Currency | Statements can carry more than one, converted at the time of processing. |
| Adjustments | Corrections from a store for an earlier period land in a later statement. |
Your wallet and payment history show what has moved into your balance. See Wallet and history.
Stream counts and royalties measure different things
A public stream counter on a store and a royalty statement will not agree, and they are not supposed to:
- They cover different periods.
- Public counters include plays that do not generate a royalty.
- Rates differ by store, market, subscriber type, and each store's own calculation.
Do not multiply a stream count by a per-stream rate you read somewhere and treat the result as owed. That number is not how any store actually pays.
Reporting a suspected gap
Identify the specifics first. Support cannot investigate "my royalties look low".
Have ready: the statement period, the destination, the territory, the release UPC, the track ISRC, and which statement view you checked. Then use the support route below.
Never send bank details, card numbers, or identity documents through article feedback.
Common questions
When will I see my first royalties? After the first store reporting cycle that includes your release has closed and been processed. For a brand new release that is months, not weeks.
A number changed after I already saw it. Stores issue corrections. A restated period is normal and appears as an adjustment.
Do I earn from my own plays? Plays from your own account are ordinary usage, but deliberately inflating them is streaming fraud and puts your catalog and earnings at risk. See Streaming integrity.
Where do splits with collaborators show up? Splits are applied to your earnings, not reported separately by the store. See Royalty Splits.