We cross-reference your streaming data against your distributor statements, PRO royalty reports, and collection society registrations — and find the gaps. Last session: $1,000+ in unaccounted royalties identified for one independent artist, documented and ready for dispute.
An independent US pop artist. Active catalog. Songs on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Tidal, Amazon Music, and Pandora. She thought her royalty situation was normal. Here is what a single audit session found.
Two of her highest-performing songs had accumulated over 173,000 combined all-time Spotify streams, with listeners overwhelmingly concentrated in the US, Germany, and the UK — all high-paying streaming markets. Her distributor dashboard showed a balance of $32.50 across her entire catalog. Paid earnings: $0.00. She had never received a single dollar from this distributor despite nearly a year of active streaming across six platforms.
She was aware the numbers felt wrong. She did not know where to look or what to call what she was seeing.
Finding 1 — Distributor payment freeze on highest-streaming song: A song with 90,979 all-time Spotify streams had an active ACRCloud copyright flag visible in the distributor dashboard. The flag was triggered by the audio fingerprint matching a prior registration connected to the producer's publishing entity. This caused the distributor to freeze all royalty payments for that track. Expected master royalties for that song alone: $270–$400. Amount paid: $0.00. The song had been flagged for approximately 9 months with no notification sent to the artist.
Finding 2 — False positive audio fingerprint match blocking second song: The artist's second high-streaming song (82,895 Spotify streams) had a separate ACRCloud flag matching its audio to a completely unrelated song by a different artist on a different label in a different country. This is a documented ACRCloud failure mode — audio fingerprinting occasionally matches songs with similar production elements. The false match had been blocking payments on that song since release. Expected master royalties: $250–$330. Amount paid: $0.00.
Finding 3 — 9 months of earnings entirely absent from distributor reporting: The distributor dashboard showed only May and June 2025 payment data. The artist's catalog had been actively streaming since before that period. July 2025 through April 2026 — ten months — showed no payment data at all. This pattern, combined with the $0.00 paid earnings, is consistent with a distributor whose DSP connections have broken down, causing the payment pipeline to stall.
Finding 4 — MLC co-writer registration discrepancy: ASCAP showed two writers registered on one song. The MLC public work search showed only one. Mechanical royalties were being calculated against an incorrect writer split, meaning the full mechanical royalty amount for 90,979 US interactive streams was being miscalculated at the collection level.
Artist remains anonymous pending resolution of active disputes. All stream counts verified via Spotify for Artists. Distributor data verified via dashboard screenshots. MLC data verified via public work search. ASCAP data verified via repertoire search. Full documentation package assembled and dispute letters prepared.
Most artists know when something feels off. But often don't know how to handle it or where to look (And this is crucial for a sustainable career). These are the four things we look at first.
A distributor dashboard showing a balance with $0.00 in Paid Earnings is one of the clearest signs of a payment problem. The balance represents what the distributor claims to have received from streaming platforms. Paid Earnings shows what has actually reached your bank account. When those two numbers don't match — and the balance has been sitting for months — it means money arrived at the distributor and stopped there.
The most common causes: an ACRCloud copyright flag freezing payments on a specific track, the distributor's upstream aggregator relationship breaking down and leaving funds stranded in the pipeline, or a withdrawal system failure. In every case, the fix starts with documentation — comparing your actual stream count against what the distributor has reported, and establishing in writing what you're owed.
ACRCloud is an audio fingerprinting service that distributors use to detect potential rights conflicts. When your uploaded recording matches an existing audio fingerprint in ACRCloud's database — whether from a producer's prior registration, a co-writer's publishing entity, or an unrelated false positive — most distributors automatically freeze all royalty payments for that track until the conflict is resolved.
The freeze happens silently. Most artists are never notified. The flag can persist for months or years, accumulating unreleased royalties behind it. A false positive — where ACRCloud matches your song to a completely unrelated recording based on similar chord progressions or production elements — is a documented and surprisingly common failure mode. Resolving it requires submitting a formal dispute to your distributor with proof of original creation: your split sheet, your producer agreement, and a statement that no unauthorized samples were used.
Every stream of your song generates royalties through three separate systems. Your distributor collects the master recording royalty — paid by Spotify, Apple Music, and other platforms for the right to stream your recording. Your PRO (ASCAP or BMI) collects performance royalties for the composition every time it's streamed publicly. The MLC collects mechanical royalties for every interactive US stream of the composition.
None of these three systems talk to each other. A problem in one doesn't affect the others. An artist can be receiving PRO royalties correctly while their distributor holds master royalties frozen behind a copyright flag. They can be registered with ASCAP while their MLC mechanical royalties accumulate unclaimed because the song was never separately registered there. An audit cross-references all three streams against your actual stream count to show which royalties are flowing, which are stalled, and which have never been collected.
Every item below is a real, named mechanism that real professionals have documented losing money through. We check all of them against your data.
Your distributor has received royalties from streaming platforms and is not releasing them to you. Dashboard shows a balance. Paid earnings show $0.00. Money has arrived and stopped. Confirmed in our May 2026 case: $1,000+ withheld across one independent artist's catalog.
Live case: $1,000+ withheld, $0 paid to bank, 11 months active
An audio fingerprint conflict — from a producer's prior registration, a co-writer's publishing entity, or a false positive match — causes your distributor to freeze all payments on a track. The flag is usually not communicated to the artist. Royalties accumulate behind it silently.
Live case: Two separate flags on two high-streaming songs simultaneously
Your distributor registers you under your stage name. You're already registered under your legal name. SoundExchange splits your royalties between two accounts. You only see one. The other accumulates for three years then expires.
Documented: $2,300 in split account — u/rift_wave a reddit account mentioning their exact experience with this.
Your label applies the platform's standard streaming rate instead of your contract rate. The error compounds every quarter. No self-reporting mechanism exists at most labels.
Documented: 18 months at wrong rate, $14,200 total shortfall — u/Larkin_Basswood
Your ASCAP registration shows co-writers that your MLC registration doesn't. Mechanical royalties are calculated against incorrect splits. Money is being distributed to the wrong parties or not distributed at all.
Live case: Co-writer present in ASCAP, absent from MLC registration
Your PRO has your registration but your IPI number isn't attached to individual songs. Money arrives at the PRO and sits in an unattributed pool. You're registered — you're just not receiving.
Documented: 30 registrations unattached, 2-year backpay limit — u/PercussiveThought
Every US interactive stream generates a mechanical royalty collectible through the MLC. If you're not registered, that money accumulates unclaimed. After three years, it's redistributed to major publishers permanently.
Documented: $1,800 recovered after accidental discovery — r/musicbusiness 2025
A third party files a Content ID claim on your original work. Your YouTube revenue routes to them. Requires active monitoring to detect — most independent artists have none.
Documented: €26,000 diverted from 300M YouTube Shorts views
Since April 2024, Spotify doesn't pay royalties on tracks with fewer than 1,000 streams per year. $47M withheld from independent artists in 2024. Most artists had no idea the policy existed.
Source: Spotify April 2024 policy, $47M confirmed withheld
Spotify's Discovery Mode reduces your per-stream royalty by 30% on promoted tracks. Distributors can opt artists in without per-release consent. We check whether your rate variance matches this signature.
Signature: 20–45% rate reduction on promoted streams
US/UK streams pay $0.004–0.006 per stream. India pays $0.0005. Distributors don't disclose geographic breakdowns by default. If your statement looks low, we check whether listener geography is the cause or a cover for something else.
4x–8x rate difference, undisclosed by default
Publishing administrators take months to complete registrations. PROs only pay retroactively up to 12 months. A delay crossing that window means the money is gone permanently — not delayed.
Documented: $37 received on 6M Spotify streams — r/musicbusiness Oct 2025
Plus: Neighboring rights gaps, split sheet disputes, recoupment rate errors, ISRC conflicts, metadata mismatches, distributor audit windows, and six additional 2024–2026 failure modes.
These are documented, named, dollar-quantified cases from working music professionals — posted publicly in industry communities before any audit service existed to catch them.
"I hired a royalty auditor last year. Cost: $3,500. Result: They found $14,200 in underpayments across three sources. My label had been calculating my streaming rate wrong for 18 months. SoundExchange had two accounts for me. ASCAP had registered two co-written songs with split errors. I would pay a monthly fee to have something monitoring this. Probably $50–75/month given what I've already lost."
"I would honestly pay $50–100/month for a service that just... did this reconciliation automatically and told me if something looked wrong. Does this exist?"
"I had 300 million YouTube Shorts views and was only paid €4,000 for them. I hired an auditor. They came back with the conclusion that €26,000 were unreported. I got my full €30,000."
"Virtually every record company audit finds money owed to the artist, once the artist can afford the exorbitant cost of an audit. It's the playbook."
Fill out our intake form: your distributor, PRO information, IPI number, SoundExchange membership, and upload your last 12–24 months of royalty statements. Takes about 15 minutes. We tell you exactly what to export and where to find it.
We cross-reference your streaming data against PRO statements by ISRC, check registration status across every applicable collection society, compare actual payment rates against expected rates, and scan for active copyright flags in your distributor dashboard.
Within 48–72 hours: a full findings report ranked by dollar value, step-by-step remediation for each finding, and dispute-ready letters addressed to the correct department — your distributor, your PRO, your label, or ACRCloud — that you can send the same day.
Early access pricing — first 10 clients lock this rate before public launch. A professional royalty auditor costs $3,500. Our audit covers the same failure modes in a fraction of the time and delivers dispute-ready documentation the same week.
All prices in USD. Payment accepted via invoice (PayPal, Zelle, Venmo, or bank transfer). Audit begins within 24 hours of payment and intake form receipt.
Fill out the form below. We respond within 24 hours with next steps and payment information. Audit begins within 24 hours of intake and payment.