The Music Royalty Ecosystem

If you ever wondered why an artist with a massive number of views or streams (or even sales for that matter) is receiving what seems to be a pittance in royalty payouts, then this overview infographic from Music Reports of the royalty payment infrastructure might explain it.

At the very top of the graphic is all the potential sources of income from digital, while the very bottom shows all the potential revenue sources from analog. Take notice how few lines actually lead to the performer or songwriter. There are a lot of fingers in the payment pie and unfortunately the artist's are the smallest.

This is one of the reasons why it's so attractive for an artist to go DIY, yet the real problem is you still need the infrastructure of a record label and publisher in order to get any traction, especially if you're a new artist. This is a dilemma that will continue to vex artists for a long time, I'm afraid.

That said, the graphic is very instructive and worth a minute or two of study.