In our Analytics dashboard, you are able to see a detailed overview of how content is performing, of which the data can be filtered on artist, label, territory, service and time period and sorted. The Analytics dashboard allows the tracking of stream source, territory, skip rates and demographic filters.
Our Accounting dashboard, provides a clear picture of their revenues, deducted from your monthly statement files. In the revenue section, you are able to view their revenues with a likewise adjustable detail as on the analytics dashboard, where these can be sorted by DSP, title, artist, label, sales type, statement period and territory.
It is important to keep in mind that the analytics dashboard should be used to understand more about how content is performing and for which audiences, rather than to estimate revenue.
Discrepancies in streams between the analytics dashboard and royalty statements are common. These are the main causes of discrepancies:
Differences between analytics and reporting data per DSP
DSPs each have a different set of criteria that determine how content is monetized and how royalties are calculated. The number of streams or downloads is only one of these criteria. For instance, one common reason for discrepancies is that users can download tracks three times after purchasing it, which shows as four downloads in analytics, but is just one sale in statements as it only has been paid once.
Non-royalty bearing streams
Many DSPs, among which Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and some Deezer feeds include non-royalty-bearing streams. These are streams that, as the definition gives away, are not showing in royalty statements nor are being paid out to clients, because these have not generated any revenue.
There are a multitude of reasons as to why streams may not be royalty bearing, including but not limited to:
- Streams that are so-called sub-30 streams. This means that the stream has not been played for over 30 seconds, and therefore is not monetized. This is the case for, amongst others, Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and YouTube.
- DSPs applying despamming to views and thereafter reporting the correct views in the royalty reports. This means that the latter really are the only finalized and accurate figures. Despamming is done to filter artificial streams from ‘genuine’ streams.
- Streams deriving from free trials some DSPs offer, which are often not included in royalty-bearing stream counts.
- Streams evolving from user generated content. For most platforms, only the production or creation of a user, where a user uploads a creation with a music track on the respective service, is royalty-bearing. All streams of this production thus do not count towards the total figures. Reels, stories and TikToks for example fall under this category.
Reporting lags
We do not recommend using the analytics dashboard as a way to verify royalty reporting because the data is very different and not to reference one-on-one. It is important to consider the accounting cycle of DSPs, as the sales period and statement period are two different things.
The time frame compared to one another should thus be the same, however this can be difficult to differentiate. Streams that have taken place in a certain month, are not accounted for in that same month, but earliest two months later. FUGA sends out the royalty statement packages every 15th of the month, and includes all sales reports received from DSPs in the month prior. Generally bigger DSPs, such as Spotify, Amazon, Google and Apple Music, send their sales reports in the month after the stream occurred. We account for these on the 15th of the month, so 1.5 months after the end of the sales period. Other DSPs may, however, account less frequently or have a larger lag in their cycle. This means that there may be a larger time frame to take into account between when the stream occurred compared to when a stream appears in statements.
Below, please find the DSPs that report to us on a monthly basis, with their respective reporting lag.