Currently, we are using two different distributors: Phonofile/The Orchard and DistroKid. They also manage all the royalties. Actually, we do not use Phonofile anymore since we found out DistroKid was fulfilling all our needs in a much better way. (And they got purchased by Sony Music’s The Orchard). DistroKid is also one of Spotify’s preferred Distributors and since Spotify is a major deal for us we use DistroKid for all new releases. However, we still need to be around Phonofile for a little longer for our releases released before April 2018.
How do I get paid? #
My releases are distributed through DistroKid #
From 2019-01-01 and forward we have a policy that all artists we send royalties to should have a DistroKid-account. This reduces a lot of headaches for all parties. Royalties are routed automatically to your DistroKid Account, you can see excruciating detail of your royalties, they take no % cut, and you can even distribute music on your own.
DistroKid offers a lot of different ways to get paid, for example, through Paypal or routing directly to a bank account. For more info read see this article.
Please note that for some of you with releases on DistroKid but was released before the DistroKid-account policy, you might have some $ as rest on our artist DistroKid-account. We send out royalty statements for these amounts until you have withdrawn that royalty (so if you don’t receive any statement from us, you don’t need to do anything).
I have releases that are distributed through Phonofile/The Orchard #
The payment schedule of The Orchard is quarterly and as soon as we receive the statements we start to prepare the statements to you all. When we are done, you will receive a pdf to your email with all your earned royalties, how much you already have withdrawn and how much it is for you to invoice.
To get your hard-earned cash you have two options.
1) Invoicing: This is the standard option if you have a company and you send us an invoice. If your company is registered in Sweden and have F-Skatt you will need to add 6% VAT to the amount specified in the Statement.
2) Bank Transfer: Important notice, if you are a Swedish resident and don’t have F-skatt you are obliged to pay “Egenavgifter” on the royalty amount. This is done during the yearly declaration.
To withdraw the royalties you will need to send an email to invoice@rexiusrecords.com with your bank details and we will then pay out the royalties accordingly. Once a year, we will send “Kontrolluppgifter” to Skatteverket.
My royalties seem low compared to the streams I got? #
In most of these cases, it’s about the delay in payments from the distributor. For example, Spotify is one of the fastest players to report royalties, but they typically still have a 2 months delay. This means that when a statement comes to DistroKid in let’s say November 30, the royalties are accumulated until the last of September. Then you have the Distributor Royalty Payment schedule with payments typically every querter. However, DistroKid may be the fastest distributor paying out the royalties at the same time they receive it from the Music Services.
Compared to your 1-day delay in Spotify for Artists the amount might seem too low but all your royalties will get to you eventually. If you are wondering how much you get from a stream the quick answer is, it depends. Read this article for a further deepening in the subject.
Should I start a business? #
We get a lot of questions regarding whether to start a business or not. It’s a really tricky question and depends from case to case.
Our standard recommendation is that if you have total revenues above 30 000 SEK per year for your music, then you should start a company and register for VAT. The most prominent advantage is that you can deduct your expenses from your income.
If you are somewhere in between, you can also start a “hobbyverksamhet”. Here’s a more thorough reading on the topic from Skatteverket.