By now, you've probably heard about the fraudster who stole $10 million (from real musicians) by flooding DSPs (streaming services) with AI generated "songs." Our friend of the pod, Billboard journalist Kristen Robinson has been doing some great reporting on it.
Kristen also uncovered how other fraudsters stole $23 million from unclaimed YouTube royalties, which we discussed on the podcast.
Recently, I’ve been sharing a lot about scammers who convince musicians to pay for “REAL ORGANIC STREAMS” from “REAL PLAYLISTS WITH REAL LISTENERS, NO BOTS.” Nine times out of ten, these are scams. These playlists are often botted, which can get your music banned from your distributor and DSPs.
Long story short, there are always people looking to manipulate the system for their own gain, scamming naive musicians in the process. Bad actors in the music industry aren’t new. Hell, major labels in the past so blatantly ripped off their artists that all three majors have since waived unrecouped “debts” from artists signed before 2000 as a sort of mea culpa. Better late than never, I guess.
There will always be people out there looking to take advantage of artists. Artists are easy targets. All they gotta do is flatter them a bit and wave some perceived success in front of them. Or simply rip them off and blatantly steal from them. The music industry is so damn complicated (by design!) that unless you understand this stuff or have a high-priced attorney by your side, it’s easy to get taken advantage of.
Nothing boils my blood more than seeing artists get ripped off. That’s why I’ve spent the last 12 years helping artists arm themselves with knowledge - so they can not only protect themselves from these vultures, but also thrive in this ever-changing industry.
Spotify recently reported that 20,500 artists earned at least $50,000 in 2023 just from Spotify royalties. But many of these artists likely didn’t see all of that money.
Why? Well, streaming services don’t pay artists directly. There is an endless array of collection agencies and orgs that these DSPs pay. And then those agencies are supposed to pay the artists. And no, it's not just your distributor btw!
Some of this money goes into a “black box,” and if the artists aren’t found, it’s redistributed based on market share, mostly going to the majors.
So, of course, it’s to the major labels (and publishers’) benefit to complicate this system so much, confuse and blind indie artists so much that these artists just throw their arms up and say “this shit’s too complicated, I don’t wanna deal with it,” and give up. So then the majors get to keep a bigger piece of the pie.
So how can you protect yourself to make sure that you are getting all of the royalties you’re owed?
You gotta educate yourself!
One step you can take right now is to search the MLC’s database (theMLC.com, Public Search) to see if your songs are properly registered. If they aren’t listed, they haven’t been registered properly. If they're listed, but without a payee, then you're not getting paid all of your royalties.
But unfortunately, even this database doesn’t reveal everywhere your songs need to be registered.
That’s why I created the Ari’s Take Academy course Registration, Royalties, and Release + Streaming Growth. It’s designed to help you navigate this complex web of royalties and registrations.
You could hire an attorney at $400/hr to help you track all of this down and get you properly set up (will be about 10 hours of initial work + 2 hours/month of maintenance). You could hire a marketing agency at $3K/month (4 month minimum) to help you run your socials and ads. And then hire a PR company at $3,500/month (4 month minimum), to get you press. Both with no guarantees of any kind of success.
Or you could learn how to do all of this on your own in this course.
Arm yourself with knowledge. Have the peace of mind that you are collecting 100% of your royalties wherever they exist, from every collection organization around the world.
Remember, many organizations hold your money for only about three years before redistributing it to the majors. So there is a ticking clock on all of this.
In this course, I’ll show you how to release your music properly, implement the best marketing strategies of the moment, how to get press without a publicist, grow your streams, and most importantly, collect the royalties owed to you.
Join us. Enrollment closes October 25th.
More info, and enrollment info here.
~Ari
PS if you have any questions, just hit reply.
What some of our students are saying:
“ATA transformed my confidence as an artist.” - Barrett Crake
“I tell every musician who's got the work ethic to check out ATA. It's been a real eye-opener, offering tons of info on how to get stuff done yourself.” - Robbie Cook
“Ari’s Take Academy is worth every penny. One of the best music courses I've taken...that's after a bachelors and masters in music, plus many more dollars on other music courses!” - Meerenai Shim
“Taking the ATA course was one of the best decisions I have made in my music career. Like many other artists, I was flying blind, full of self doubt and alone. Here I learned how to hone my process and craft through the help of the ATA team and the community. But more importantly, I learned that there is a place for everyone's music. To stay true to what you want to create as an artist and stick it out because it is a long road. ATA operates on the idea of abundance vs scarcity. When we win, we win together and for that- I am eternally grateful.” - Jason Slack
“I have loved being a part of ATA! As an indie artist, it's hard to wear all the hats of being a creator that writes, produces, performs AND takes on the business aspect of music. RRR is super straightforward and easy to understand; ATA's a fun environment to learn helpful ways to succeed in the music business, whatever that may mean for you!” - Kenna Childs
“I would highly recommend this program as well as all of the other programs. It's a really quality organization and it's an absolute resource for an upcoming musician like myself, or at any level that you might want to gain some additional knowledge. They've been extremely hands-on so far and his team are extremely hands-on throughout the process. I would highly recommend this program as well as all of the other programs. It's a really quality organization and it's an absolute resource for an upcoming musician like myself, or at any level that you might want to gain some additional knowledge.” -Ross Newhouse
Join us: https://aristakeacademy.com
