Stats and Filtering Downloads/Stream Results

You are able to filter your downloads & stream results by release, song, date range, retailer, etc on the “Streams” page and “Downloads” page of your account (under the “Stats” tab). You can also click “Download This Report” from the filtered sales screens you are currently viewing. Within filtering, you can sort each column. You will also notice a sum on top of your filtered results that reflects the cumulative earnings based on your filtering.

Monthly Sales Reports

When you go to the “Stats” tab and click “Download Monthly Sales Reports,” you can download each report based on either the reporting period (approximately 2 months after the sale(s) occurred) or by sales period (the month that the sale(s) occurred). When you open one of these monthly sales reports, you will see the following columns:

• Sales Period : the period of time when your music was sold or streamed in the respective stores
• Posted Date : the date that the report appeared in your account
• Store Name : the digital store that paid you for the reported sales period
• Country of Sale : the country of the store where the download or stream occurred
• Artist : the artist name of the release, song that was sold or streamed
• Release Type : EP, Single or Music Video (a single is reported as a song sale)
• Release Title : the title of the EP, Song or Music Video (note: iTunes automatically reports sales for EP’s with 6 tracks or less as individual song sales. The reason for this is their pricing. If an EP has 6 tracks or less, iTunes automatically prices it as $0.99 times however many tracks (so an EP with 6 tracks is 6 x $0.99 = $5.94). Therefore, there is no difference in price between buying the whole EP or just buying all of the tracks individually.
• Song Title : if the sale occurred as a song purchase and not an entire EP, the song name that was purchased shows (see note above for Release Title)
• Label : the label listed on the release, song or music video
• UPC : the MDC generated UPC of the release, song or music video (disregard this if you submitted your own UPC)
• Optional UPC : if applicable, the UPC you entered on your own in MDC (note, you will see a “UPC” value as well, but you can disregard this since your own UPC was reported in the sale)
• MDC Song ID : MDC generated Song ID (disregard this if you submitted your own ISRC)
• Optional ISRC : if applicable, the ISRC you submitted on your own in MDC (note, you will see a “MDC Song ID” value as well, but you can disregard this since your own ISRC was reported in the sale)
• Sales Type : Download or Stream
• # Units Sold : as reported to us by the store, the # of EP’s, songs or Music Videos sold in a reporting day
• Per Unit Price : the price of 1 unit that sold in that stated country’s currency
• Net Sales : the amount of money paid out by the store after keeping their percentage of a sale × # of units (Remember, MDC keeps nothing of your sales money)
• Net Sales Currency : the currency of the Net Sales amount
• Exchange Rate : the currency conversion rate stated at a specific time for that country into US Dollars (MDC pays you in US Dollars only)
• Total Earned : the amount you received in your MDC account after the stated exchange rate
• Currency : This will always be USD since we pay you in US Dollars

Please note: iTunes automatically reports sales for EP’s with 6 tracks or less as individual track sales. The reason for this is their pricing. If an EP has 6 tracks or less, iTunes automatically prices it as $0.99 x no. of tracks (i.e. an EP with 6 tracks is 6 x $0.99 = $5.94). Therefore, there is no difference in price between buying the whole EP or just buying all of the tracks individually.

Transactions Page

On the “Transactions” page under the “Money” tab, you will see every withdrawal from your MDC account, every payment made to MDC, and every deposit made into your account from a store’s reported music sales. There is the ability to filter your search results as well.

Explaining the many details behind downloads and streams can be a bit complex, so we’ve broken down the following commonly asked questions:

DIGITAL DOWNLOADS

You are paid when your music is digitally downloaded as either a permanent download and/or a conditional (or tethered) download. Conditional downloads will be discussed under Streams (below).

What is a permanent download?

A permanent download is the digital reproduction of a sound recording for permanent and private use. Permanent downloads are offered by online services such as iTunes, Amazon MP3 and eMusic. Some digital services (like iTunes) pay a fixed rate for each permanent download; others (like eMusic) derive a pay rate based on their revenues.

How am I paid on permanent downloads?

When your songs, albums or music videos are sold as permanent downloads, you will receive the wholesale price (the money you receive from a sale) at a fixed pay rate. That wholesale price is inclusive of both master and mechanical royalties. If someone wants to own a copy of your sound recording as a permanent download, they must pay two royalties (a master and a mechanical). They must pay the master royalty to the owner of the sound recording – that is whoever owns or controls the master recording. They must pay for the mechanical royalty to the owner of the underlying composition – that is usually the songwriter or his/her publisher.

Why do permanent download rates vary?

The pay rate that you receive on each permanent download may vary with each digital store and by country. Online services reserve the right to sell music and/or music videos at any retail price they choose.

Additionally, you may notice that the payment that you receive for international sales of your music is less than what you receive on domestic sales. Payment earned on international sales is less for various reasons. First, payment on international sales is made in local currency and therefore subject to exchange rate fluctuations when converted to U.S. dollars. Second, local laws may require that before remitting the money to MDC, the digital services must deduct sums for applicable local taxes or other tariffs depending on the territory where you distribute your music. Third, the current wholesale price paid to you for international sales of your music may reflect a deduction for publishing royalties as some digital services (including streaming services discussed below) pay those royalties to local copyright right societies and publishers (the “Copyright Deduction”) and then the copyright societies and/or publishers pay out those royalties to the rights holders (even if you are the rights holder and/or control the underlying rights to the composition). The Copyright Deduction may vary per country depending on local laws and customs at the time of payment and are subject to change.

If you are a MDC Publishing client, you will receive your international mechanical royalties from international downloads per your publishing statement.

STREAMS

What is a music stream?

A Stream is when someone listens to your song or music video via a streaming music service application but does not own or permanently download the content.

Certain digital services allow a user to listen to music and/or music videos as part of a subscription model (such as Napster), paying a monthly subscription fee for access. Some subscription models allow customers to stream music whenever they want while they are connected to the Internet. Other services, like YouTube, do not require a user to subscribe to listen to music and/or music videos but nonetheless offer on-demand access to users. The ability to listen to any music the user wants at any time is referred to as interactive or on-demand streaming .

Some services also allow subscribers to download music files to their computer or compatible device(s) so long as their subscription is current. This type of limited downloading is typically referred to as a conditional or tethered download . In many ways, it’s like your fans joined a service that lets them rent your music. As soon as they stop paying their monthly subscription fee, they will not have access to listen to your music.

Lastly, some services do not allow the user to choose what music they listen to but rather provide playlists for the end-user. These types of services are referred to as non-interactive streaming services . An example of a non-interactive streaming service is Pandora.

How am I paid for streams?

The types of royalties generated on each stream is dependent on the type of stream itself.

Interactive or On-Demand Streams : Each interactive or on-demand stream requires a master, mechanical and public performance royalty to be paid out. Please see the previous section to learn about master and mechanical royalties.

Most interactive or on-demand services pay royalties based on a percentage of their revenue (subscription, advertising or sometimes combination of both). When you are paid for interactive streaming through MDC distribution, you are generally only paid on the master. The streaming services pay the mechanical royalty separately, unless you are MDC Publishing client, in which case you will receive your mechanical royalties though MDC for the streaming of your music on the digital services that you select.

Non-interactive Streams : For each non-interactive streaming, the services pay out public performance royalties as well as royalties to the performance artist on the sound recording through performing rights societies and SoundExchange respectively.

GOOD TO KNOW: We’ve built our MDC Publishing Administration to get songwriters (the person or entity that controls the copyright to the lyrics and melody of the song) all their royalties from sales and use of their songs around the world. To learn more about the additional separate royalties you earn as a Songwriter, see our Publishing Administration Help section.

If the sale of your music occurred in the U.S. , mechanical royalties are included in the payment MDC receives from the digital services, which MDC then passes on to you. For example, sales on your downloads from iTunes U.S. is inclusive of both master and mechanical royalties. It is your responsibility to allocate and pay out the mechanical royalties that you receive in your payment to whoever owns or controls the underlying musical composition(s), which is usually the songwriter and/or publisher of the work. Please note that you can make multiple withdrawals from your MDC account as you please.

If the sale of your music occurred outside of the U.S. , the digital stores may withhold a percentage of your sale that represents the mechanical royalty and pay that amount to a local copyright societies and publishers. The local copyright society and/or publisher is then responsible for remitting mechanical royalties to the appropriate rights holder, which may be you if you own or control your underlying composition(s). Therefore, the money that you receive for download sales outside of the U.S. is generally exclusive of mechanical royalties, unless you use MDC’s Songwriter service, then we will provide you these royalties in a separate publishing statement.

If a music service streams your music on-demand , the service will owe for both the master and mechanical royalty due on such usage. This is true for services such as Spotify or Napster, which are both interactive streaming services. Generally, the money that you receive for interactive streaming is exclusive of mechanical royalties because those services pay the mechanical royalties separately to the appropriate rights holders or in the case of international streaming to local copyright societies and publishers. However, if you are a MDC Songwriter client, then you will receive these royalties in addition to the master royalties due in a separate publishing statement.

You can look into purchasing a mechanical license for a cover song in the US from The Harry Fox Agency .

GOOD TO KNOW: To make sure that you are collecting all available publishing royalties on compositions that you own or control we’ve built our MDC Publishing Administration to get songwriters (the person or entity that controls the copyright to the lyrics and melody of the song) all their royalties from sales and use of their songs around the world. To learn more about the additional separate royalties you earn as a Songwriter, see our Publishing Administration Help section.

The digital services that MDC distributes your music to, pay for downloads and streaming sales. Streaming services (like Tidal) pay artists based on a percentage of revenue that the service receives. For example, if your music was streamed on Facebook, Facebook reports to MDC your royalties based on a percentage of their revenue and we then post that money to your MDC account.

In addition, you are eligible to collect other types of streaming royalties from SoundExchange. SoundExchange is a non-profit organization established by the Copyright Royalty Board. SoundExchange collects and distributes digital performance royalties on behalf of recording artists, master rights owners (like record labels), and independent artists who own their masters. SoundExchange collects these royalties from three main sources:

• Non-interactive webcasters : SoundExchange collects royalties from non-interactive webcasters, that is service providers that do not allow users to pick and choose what they listen to. Pandora is an example of a non-interactive webcaster, whereas Apple Music or YouTube are interactive (or on-demand) streaming services because a user picks exactly what he/she wants to listen to.
• Satellite and Digital Cable TV : When your song is played through digital cable and satellite television music related services like Music Choice (Digital Cable) and Muzak (Dish), SoundExchange collects and distributes the royalties.
• Satellite Radio Services : In the world of terrestrial radio, it’s only the songwriter and publisher that receive performance royalties, not necessarily the performing artist (unless they own or control their underlying composition(s)). However, in the world of satellite radio, like SiriusXM, SoundExchange monitors their plays and allocates the money to recording artists accordingly.

Your membership at Music Distribution Club has you eligible for collecting potential royalties owed to you on these types of services.

Please also note that SoundExchange is different from performing rights organizations such as BMI, ASCAP and SESAC (the “PROs”). The PROs collect royalties when music is publicly performed on behalf of songwriters and publishers, not the performance artists per se (although as mentioned above, they may be the same person). Registration with the PROs is a separate process. Visit their respective websites for more information.

Yes. Generally, stores that sell music as downloads (like iTunes, Amazon Music and others) keep 30% of a sale (this is called the retail markup price). You keep 70% of a sale (this is called the wholesale price).

For stores that offer full-song streaming, there is a proportionate share worked out differently for every store. Monthly payouts for music streaming can vary each month.