Fan-Powered Royalties

Category: Soundcloud

What is Fan-Powered Royalties?

Fan-powered royalties distribute your listeners' subscription fees directly to artists they actually stream, rather than pooling all revenue.

Fan-Powered Royalties explained

SoundCloud pioneered fan-powered royalties (also called user-centric payments) in 2021. Under this model, if a subscriber only listens to your music, 100% of their subscription revenue goes to you—unlike traditional pro-rata models where revenue pools are divided by total platform streams (favoring mega-artists). This model rewards engaged fanbases over pure stream counts. An artist with 1,000 dedicated fans can earn more than one with 10,000 casual listeners. For independent artists, this levels the playing field and makes building a loyal community more valuable than chasing viral moments.

Why Fan-Powered Royalties matters for independent artists

Understanding Fan-Powered Royalties helps you make better promotion decisions on SoundCloud and other streaming platforms. On Reposter Network, artists apply concepts like this every day when they trade real plays, likes and reposts with other musicians instead of buying fake engagement.

Related terms

• Monetization: Monetization turns your music into revenue through streaming royalties, sync licensing, merchandise, live performances, and fan subscriptions.
• Royalties: Royalties are payments made to rights holders whenever their music is played, performed, reproduced, or licensed commercially.
• SoundCloud Go: SoundCloud Go is a listener subscription service offering ad-free listening, offline playback, and access to premium tracks.

Browse the full music marketing glossary or read the guide on SoundCloud repost networks.