1. Key Definitions
What is Total Revenue?
Total Revenue is the gross amount earned from all streaming and sales activity across all platforms before any fees or costs are deducted. It includes both streaming revenue (Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, etc.) and sales revenue (downloads).
What is Total Net Income?
Total Net Income is what remains after subtracting the Discovery Fee and the co:brand Fee from your Total Revenue. This is the pool of money from which costs are deducted and profits are distributed.
What is the co:brand Fee?
The co:brand Fee is a percentage deducted from your Total Revenue as compensation for co:brand's distribution and services. This is separate from any recoupable costs.
What is the Discovery Fee?
The Discovery Fee relates to Spotify Discovery Mode - a tool that can boost algorithmic recommendations in exchange for a reduced royalty rate on streams generated through the programme. If you are enrolled in Discovery Mode, this fee reflects the reduced rate applied to those streams. See more information here from Spotify.
What is Estimated Revenue?
Estimated Revenue reflects income from recent streaming activity that has not yet been fully reported or paid out by the DSPs (Digital Service Providers). DSPs typically report on a delay, so this figure represents an approximation of earnings in transit. It is not guaranteed and will be reconciled in a future statement.
What is Total Earnings?
Total Earnings is the amount that has been confirmed and settled - your actual paid-out figure after all fees and adjustments. This differs from Estimated Revenue, which is a forward-looking projection.
2. Reading Your Royalty Statement
When will my statement be available?
Statements are delayed by approximately three months. This reflects the time it takes for DSPs to report and settle royalties to distributors. For example, earnings from November 2025 would typically appear in a statement available around February 2026.
How is my payout calculated?
Your payout is calculated through the following waterfall:
Start with Total Revenue (all streaming + sales income)
Deduct the Discovery Fee (if enrolled in Spotify Discovery Mode)
Deduct the co:brand Fee (distribution service fee)
This gives your Total Net Income
Deduct any recoupable Costs (marketing, promotions, etc) or added reimbursement for your own input costs.
The remainder is your Share of Earnings (Profit Distribution)
What are Costs (Cobrand Paid)?
These are expenses that co:brand has paid on your behalf - such as marketing campaigns, press, or promotional activity - which are recouped from your royalties over time. They are tracked in your recoupment section on Release Details.
What does my ISRC Earnings Breakdown show?
The ISRC breakdown shows how your total earnings are distributed across individual tracks. Each ISRC listed represents a specific recording, showing how much it earned in the period and your royalty split percentage for that track. For a full breakdown across all your ISRCs, download the CSV version of your statement.
Note: The PDF statement shows a summary. For a complete ISRC-level breakdown of earnings, always download the CSV statement.
3. Understanding Recoupments
What is a recoupment?
A recoupment is a mechanism for recovering costs that have been advanced on behalf of an artist or release. Rather than billing the artist directly, co:brand deducts the cost from future royalty earnings over time, until the full amount has been recovered.
What is a Track Level Recoupment?
A Track Level Recoupment means the cost applies to a specific recording (identified by its ISRC) and will be recouped from the royalties generated by that track. This is the most common recoupment type and ensures costs are attributed to the specific project they relate to.
4. Adding a Recoupment
What does each field mean when adding a recoupment?
Payee
The Payee is the party who originally spent or advanced the money. This is typically co:brand when co:brand has paid for a campaign or promotional activity on the artist's behalf.
Contributor
The Contributor is the participant whose royalties will be withheld to repay the recoupable amount. If the cost applies to all contributors on a track equally, select "Track Level Recoupment" rather than a specific individual - this ensures the cost is spread across everyone with a royalty split on that recording.
Expense Type
Expense Type categorises the nature of the cost (e.g. Marketing and Promotion, Third Party Promotions, Other). This field is primarily for your own reporting - it makes it easier to filter and review different categories of spend across your statements over time.
Description
A free-text field for your own reference. We recommend including the vendor name and type of service - for example, "Meta Ads - October Campaign". Clear descriptions make it much easier to reconcile costs when reviewing statements later.
Recoupment Date
The Recoupment Date is the date the cost was incurred. This field determines which statement period the recoupment is attributed to.
Important: Recoupment dates cannot be set to a month that has already been paid out. Because royalty payouts are processed monthly and finalised once a period closes, backdating a recoupment into a settled month would create an inconsistency in the accounting - effectively altering a statement that has already been paid. Always use the date the expense was actually incurred, and make sure to log costs promptly so they fall within the correct open period.
Amount
Enter the total amount spent for this recoupment. You can select the currency from the dropdown (defaulting to USD). The full amount will be recouped progressively from future royalty earnings until the balance reaches zero.
5. The Earnings Dashboard
What is the difference between green and grey bars on the revenue chart?
On the monthly revenue chart, green bars represent months where royalty data has been fully reported and confirmed by DSPs. Grey bars represent estimated or pending data - months where earnings have been recorded but full settlement has not yet been received. As statements are finalised, grey bars will update to confirmed figures.
What does the Monthly Earnings Breakdown show?
The breakdown section lets you analyse your revenue across four dimensions:
how much each DSP (Spotify, Apple, Amazon, etc.) contributed
more granular sub-types (e.g. Spotify Streaming vs. Spotify Premium trial)
the type of stream (Premium, Student, Family, Free tier, etc.)
which territories are generating the most revenue
Use the filters at the top to narrow by artist, ISRC, or time period to drill into specific releases or campaigns.
Why does my dashboard show $0.00 for some months?
This is normal for recent months. Because DSP reporting is delayed by approximately 2 months, revenue from recent activity will not yet be visible in your paid/confirmed figures. Use the Estimated Revenue figure as a guide for more recent performance while awaiting confirmation.
For further support, please contact the co:brand team.