Topic: RadioSparx - Artist, Composer, Label (Content Provider) Issues
Article ID: KB2439
Last Reviewed: Jun 24, 2017
Q. How do I get paid for the use of my music on RadioSparx?
A. This article explains how RadioSparx subscriptions and earnings-per-stream (EPS) are handled here.
RadioSparx Subscription Options
RadioSparx is a for-pay commercial background music service, and we also offer a personal-use-only subscription. As clients subscribe to the service they pay up-front for a subscription term of either one month, 3-months, 6-months, or 12-months. As they use their subscription service, at the end of each month of service, we then have a record of exactly which tracks the client played during that month of service. So then at the end of each month of service, we are able to apportion a prorated share of the fee paid by the client to each AudioSparx artist who had one or more tracks that were listened to by the client during the month.
The revenue is apportioned in amounts relative to the number of times each track was played in comparison to the total number of tracks the client played at each of their locations (i.e. so-called "prorated plays"), so tracks that were played frequently earn more money than tracks that were played infrequently.
The revenue is apportioned in amounts relative to the number of times each track was played in comparison to the total number of tracks the client played at each of their locations (i.e. so-called "prorated plays"), so tracks that were played frequently earn more money than tracks that were played infrequently.
Earnings-Per-Stream (EPS)
Earnings per stream vary greatly based on whether each client plays the music non-stop day and night, or whether they play the music intermittently, or just during certain hours of the day. All per-track earnings are based entirely on the actual play history for each paying client. The more a client plays the music, the less each individual track earns out of the monthly portion of each client's subscription fee. Conversely, the less a client plays the music, the higher the relative earnings are for each individual stream that was played during the month. We have no direct control over this and cannot force earnings to be higher or lower per stream for any individual client's use of the service.
Example: To illustrate, suppose a client with one location pays $19.95 for a month's service and during that month plays 10,000 streams. The earnings-per-stream would be $19.95/10,000 = $0.001995. On the other hand, suppose the same client plays only 2,000 streams during the month. The earnings-per-stream in this case would be $19.95/2,000 = $0.009975 which is roughly five times higher. These per-stream earnings are "gross revenue" (i.e. the amount received by AudioSparx from the client), and you would earn the standard 40% of this per-stream revenue as your "net revenue".
Pricing Varies Around the World
Additionally, RadioSparx has clients in over 105 countries now and pricing varies widely between developed countries and developing countries. For example, clients in Bangladesh and India pay a much lower price than clients based in the US and Europe. The price each client pays for their venues directly affects earnings per stream. We wish that we could charge a uniform price worldwide, however such a pricing methodology is not viable because there are different market forces at play in different countries, and it comes down to what each local market is willing and able to pay for our service, based on many factors that are not within our control. In short, your EPS can vary depending on which countries the clients playing your music are located, since clients in developed countries pay a higher price than for developing countries. The example included in the previous section was using a relatively high retail price of $19.95 per month. The pricing that we are able to achieve in some developing countries, for a client with a chain of locations, sold through a reseller, can result in gross earnings to RadioSparx as low as $2.00 per month per location. We have clients around the world that result in per-location gross earnings to RadioSparx in a wide range between these two extremes.
Additionally, RadioSparx has clients in over 105 countries now and pricing varies widely between developed countries and developing countries. For example, clients in Bangladesh and India pay a much lower price than clients based in the US and Europe. The price each client pays for their venues directly affects earnings per stream. We wish that we could charge a uniform price worldwide, however such a pricing methodology is not viable because there are different market forces at play in different countries, and it comes down to what each local market is willing and able to pay for our service, based on many factors that are not within our control. In short, your EPS can vary depending on which countries the clients playing your music are located, since clients in developed countries pay a higher price than for developing countries. The example included in the previous section was using a relatively high retail price of $19.95 per month. The pricing that we are able to achieve in some developing countries, for a client with a chain of locations, sold through a reseller, can result in gross earnings to RadioSparx as low as $2.00 per month per location. We have clients around the world that result in per-location gross earnings to RadioSparx in a wide range between these two extremes.
Rebroadcasting Subscriptions
Further, RadioSparx has some "rebroadcasting" clients who utilize the RadioSparx service as the music source for their own Internet-based or broadcast-based radio service. Earnings from such clients are considerably higher on a per-stream basis than when a subscription is played as background music at a single business location (store, restaurant, etc).
Service Provider Sublicensing
RadioSparx also has a few music licensing relationships with certain select commercial background music providers where, for certain music deployment methods (i.e. USB drive deployment to aircraft for boarding/unboarding, developing world situations where there is bad or non-existent internet service, etc.) these service providers are not able to report comprehensive track play quantities and summaries but instead only provide a list of tracks played per reporting period. Since no play quantities are reported, RadioSparx registers the total activity as one play per track per reporting period which has the unfortunate side effect of skewing EPS very high. We strive to avoid this but for some deployment methods as mentioned above, there is technically no ability to record or report real-time play stats.
Royalty Postings to Vendor Accounts
Earnings are posted to vendor accounts here at the end of each month of each active client's subscription term. All money that is earned for background music service, whether via RadioSparx or in relation to the use of our music by some external music service, is reported under the RadioSparx section of the Sales Report.
Earnings Can Vary Over Time
Earnings can go up or down over time for various different reasons. Any clients may heavily play stations that include your music during one month but then change to different stations the next month to stations that happen to not include your music. Hence, there is no guarantee that sales and play volume for any particular track will stay the same or grow over time, although in general, the service is expanding rapidly and sales are going up over time.
To learn how RadioSparx compares to various other methods of generating revenue for music, please see this article:
How can I find out my latest earnings from music streaming on RadioSparx?
Log in to AudioSparx, then click on MyAccount at the top right of the AudioSparx website, click on the Reports submenu, then click on the Sales Report link and select the date range for which you wish to run the report. The RadioSparx earnings will appear in the bottom section of the report.
How to Enhance Your Earnings on RadioSparx
Our top-earning composers and producers on RadioSparx often have from 100 to 1,000+ tracks playlisted. Our top-selling stations are generally our pop-oriented vocal stations. Trendy vocals or fun vocal samples can often be a winner. Please check our current top stations to consider creating music for these popular stations: www.RadioSparx.com – and it’s best to keep your track lengths around 2.0 to 4.0 minutes. Songs for massage therapy can be longer (5 to 10 minutes). Note: For tracks to be considered for RadioSparx stations and our AudioSparx Playlists, they must be at least 80 seconds in length or longer.
To learn how RadioSparx compares to various other methods of generating revenue for music, please see this article:
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