Royalties for Unclaimed Music

Found your music on STEM.FM without ever signing up? Its royalties are not lost, and they are not quietly absorbed. This article explains what happens to money earned by tracks with no registered rights holder.

Every play is accounted for

Royalties are calculated the same way for every track, claimed or not: monthly, from real subscription revenue, in proportion to credited listening (see How Artist Compensation Works). When a track has no registered owner, its allocation is marked unclaimed and held. It is not paid to anyone else and not folded back into platform revenue.

• Held amounts are tracked per recording, per territory, per month, separately for master and publishing rights.
• If a track is only partially claimed (for example, one co-owner registered 50%), the unclaimed remainder is held for the other owners.
• Copies of the same recording are consolidated. User uploads are fingerprint-matched to the catalogue version, so plays of a duplicate accrue to the same recording you claim.

Claiming releases the held amount

When your claim is approved, the amounts held for your ownership share are released to you, covering the months before you claimed as well as future ones. Releases are proportional: claiming 60% of the master rights releases 60% of the held master royalties, and the remainder stays held for the other owners.

Money held for other reasons

• If a claim on a track is disputed, the disputed share is held while the dispute is open instead of being paid to either party.
• If a track is removed by a takedown, revenue attributed to it while blocked is held rather than paid out.

Held amounts in these cases are handled as part of resolving the dispute or takedown. If you believe you are owed held royalties, contact support and we will look into it.