Steps on accepting or declining a Collaborator Split for Music Royalty Earnings on a Release
Awesome News! You've been invited as a collaborator to a royalty earnings split on the EngineEars Platform for a streaming music release.
EngineEars is a full-service platform that delivers an unrivaled ecosystem, empowering artists, labels, producers, recording studios, mixing and mastering engineers to collaborate on music creation, distribution, and promotion around the world. Artists and Labels use EngineEars Direct to globally release and monetize their music on digital streaming services and stores.
This article outlines the steps on how to respond to Collaborator Split invitations for royalty earnings on a music streaming release distributed via the EngineEars platform.
- What is a Collaborator Split?
- Accept a Collaborator Split Invitation
- Decline a Collaborator Split Invitation
What is a Collaborator Split?
Collaborator Splits are pre-defined percentages that divide the portion of revenue earned by distributed music releases collected from digital streaming services and/or digital stores (e.g. Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon Music, Tidal, TikTok etc.) for the use or purchase of the released song(s).
These streaming music royalty earnings are split (or divided) amongst the people who collaboratively contributed to the creation, recording, post-production, performance, and/or publishing of the song. For example, splits can be used to share earnings with collaborators who played a contributing role on a song such as: performers (main artists, featured artists, instrumentalists, bandmates, vocalists), songwriters (lyricists, composers), producers, audio engineers (recording, mixing, mastering), publishers, management or other specifically named individuals.
Splits are defined as a percentage (divided out of a 100% total) for each song for each named collaborator. Once song splits are set and agreed upon, they ensure automatic distribution of future royalty earnings collected from digital streaming services and/or digital stores to each split collaborator specified on the song split.
Collaborator splits are helpful because they can ensure fair payment for the contributions of those involved on the song, encourage professionalism in collaborative relationships, reduce potential disputes, and provide a transparent method of agreement for future revenue sharing amongst multiple collaborators.
Accept a Collaborator Split Invitation
New to EngineEars
To accept a Collaborator Splits invitation, check your email for the invitation link you received and click the link(s) in it.
If you don't yet have an EngineEars account, and received a Collaborator Split invitation email:
1. Sign-up for a new EngineEars account: Click the sign-up button and complete the process to create a new EngineEars account.
Tip: Make sure you sign up with the same email address where you received the Collaborator Splits invitation email. This ensures you can join the Earnings Split you were specifically invited to.
2. After you've finished creating your new EngineEars account, you will be directed to a page to respond to the Collaborator Split Invite.
3. Click the 'Accept' button. You will see a confirmation that you have successfully joined the Collaborator Split for the song you were invited to.
4. If you have not yet set up Stripe, you will be asked to do so. Click on the Set up Stripe button to proceed with the setup steps for Stripe Connect in their setup portal, and follow all the steps. You will need to setup Stripe and then also complete the required Stripe verification.
In order to receive automatic payments for your share of the earnings for the song split you accepted, you must set up Stripe via the EngineEars platform and link it to your Bank Account. EngineEars uses Stripe for processing payments and payouts.
Notes:
- After a split invitation has been accepted, you will begin to receive your share of earnings payouts for the accepted song split moving forward (Stripe setup must be completed in order to withdraw payouts). Retroactive earnings splits payouts are not supported.
- Distribution of streaming royalty earnings and collaborator splits payouts occur at the same time when earnings data is received from streaming platforms/stores and is divided.
- If you are invited to earnings splits for more than 1 song on a release, you will need to individually accept each split invitation, one song at a time using the link(s) in the invitation email(s) received.
- Collaborator Split invitations can expire if you ignore it or neglect to respond. If you do not respond by accepting or declining the split invitation, once it expires it will be considered a declined invitation. You will not be eligible to receive earnings from the song unless you are invited again and accept the re-sent collaborator split invitation.
- If the person who invited you to the collaborator split for the release modifies the song split % in any way (after you have accepted it), you will receive an email regarding the change and have the option to accept the modification for it to take effect. If you decline or ignore the modification to the split arrangement, the new changes will not take effect and the previously accepted splits will remain.
- If the person who invited you to the collaborator split for the release deletes the song split % (after you have accepted it), you will receive an email notification about the split removal.
Existing Account Login on EngineEars
To accept a Collaborator Splits invitation, check your email for the invitation link you received and click the link(s) in it.
If you already have an EngineEars account, and received a Collaborator Split invitation email:
1. Login to your existing EngineEars account: Click the login button and sign-in to your account.
2. After you've logged in to your existing EngineEars account, you will be directed to a page to respond to the Collaborator Split Invite.
3. Click the 'Accept' button. You will see a confirmation that you have successfully joined the Collaborator Split for the song you were invited to.
4. If you have not yet set up Stripe, you will be asked to do so. Click on the Set up Stripe button to proceed with the setup steps for Stripe Connect in their setup portal, and follow all the steps to setup your Stripe account and complete the required Stripe verification.
In order to receive automatic payments for your share of the earnings for the song split you accepted, you must set up Stripe via the EngineEars platform and link it to your Bank Account. EngineEars uses Stripe for processing payments and payouts.
Notes:
- After a split invitation has been accepted, you will begin to receive your share of earnings payouts for the accepted song split moving forward (Stripe setup must be completed in order to withdraw payouts). Retroactive earnings splits payouts are not supported.
- Distribution of streaming royalty earnings and collaborator splits payouts occur at the same time when earnings data is received from streaming platforms/stores and is divided.
- If you are invited to earnings splits for more than 1 song on a release, you will need to individually accept each split invitation, one song at a time using the link(s) in the invitation email(s) received.
- Collaborator Split invitations can expire if you ignore it or neglect to respond. If you do not respond by accepting or declining the split invitation, once it expires it will be considered a declined invitation. You will not be eligible to receive earnings from the song unless you are invited again and accept the re-sent collaborator split invitation.
- If the person who invited you to the collaborator split for the release modifies the song split % in any way (after you have accepted it), you will receive an email regarding the change and have the option to accept the modification for it to take effect. If you decline or ignore the modification to the split arrangement, the new changes will not take effect and the previously accepted splits will remain.
- If the person who invited you to the collaborator split for the release deletes the song split % (after you have accepted it), you will receive an email notification about the split removal.
If you already have an EngineEars account, and can't find the Collaborator Split invitation email:
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Confirm your email address: Ensure the Collaborator Split invitation was correctly sent to the email address associated with your EngineEars account. If it was sent to an email address different from your existing EngineEars account login, you will need to ask the sender to resend the Collaborator Split invitation to the correct email address associated with your existing EngineEars account login.
If you're having trouble joining the Collaborator Split you've been invited to:
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Contact the person who sent the Collaborator Split invitation: They can check if the invitation is still pending, verify the email address they used, or resend the invitation if necessary.
Decline a Collaborator Split Invitation
1. To decline a Collaborator Splits invitation, check your email for the invitation link you received and click the link(s) in it.
If you don't yet have an EngineEars account, and received a Collaborator Split invitation email:
2. Sign-up for a new EngineEars account: Click the sign-up button and complete the process to create a new EngineEars account.
Tip: Make sure you sign up with the same email address where you received the Collaborator Splits invitation email. This ensures you can join or decline the Earnings Split you were invited to.
If you already have an EngineEars account, and received a Collaborator Split invitation email:
2. Login to your EngineEars account: Click the login button and sign-in to your account.
3. After signing up or logging in to your EngineEars account, you will be directed to a page to respond to the Collaborator Split Invite.
3. Click the 'Decline' button. You will see a confirmation that you have successfully declined the Collaborator Split for the song you were invited to.
Notes:
- If the invite is declined, you will not be eligible to receive earnings from the song release that you declined, unless you are invited again and accept the collaborator split invitation.
- Collaborator Split invitations can expire if you ignore it or neglect to respond. If you do not respond by accepting or declining the split invitation, once it expires it will be considered a declined invitation. You will not be eligible to receive earnings from the song unless you are invited again and accept the re-sent collaborator split invitation.
- The ability to Decline a split invite, is not a negotiation tool. It expresses your rejection of the split invite but it does not replace the need for direct communications and mutual agreement between the parties involved. If you need to negotiate financial arrangements regarding the split, it it best to communicate directly with the person who invited you to the split to resolve any differences or disputes.
