Understanding your Royalties CSV Export

Every reporting period, we receive royalty reports from a number of different retailers, streaming providers, and ad based platforms. All of this data is compiled into one standardized format that is then uploaded to your account for your viewing.

You have various views to see how your material performed. You have views to break down sales and streams from an artist, partner, content type, or other perspectives.

In addition, you can also export the raw data for you to use and compile however you would like. This is an overview that will help you understand your CSV export.

Serial: This is an automated ID given to each line item by our system. This represents the number of the row for the period that is being exported.

Aggregator: Verse One Distribution is usually listed here but in some cases, if we work with other distribution companies and your label or artist name is under them, you would see their Distribution name in this column.

Digital Service Provider: This represents where the royalty came from. You will see more than just download based retailers nowadays. Everything from Streaming providers, Physical Sale Retailers, Balance Forwarded From Previous Quarter, and/or miscellaneous partner categories will be here. If we are to get Sync Licensing placements and/or even Neighboring Rights, wherever the source came from is where it would be listed here.

Account: The record label and/or artist name account that we at Verse One Distribution have you under will go here. If you are an artist, your artist name would typically show up here. If you are a label, then when you send this to your artists, whichever label the release and artist is under will show up here.

UPC: The UPC code that you assigned for your release will be found here. This is an individual product identifier. Having this code will then match up any sales or streams to your releases. Whenever this is reported, it is matched to your existing catalog. If no match is found, the transaction is then found under “Unmatched Sales” for you to manually match it and/or create a new royalty record. An “Unmatched Sale” may occur if we are receiving your label from another distributor.

Catalog: Some partners will report a catalog number. A catalog number is similar to a UPC code in it that it is an identifier for the release. This is typically an internal identifier though and you will often see “N/A” in this column.

ISRC Code: Much like UPC, this is an individual identifier for your track (song). Whenever this is reported, it is matched to your existing catalog. If no match is found, the transaction is then found under “Unmatched Sales” for you to manually match it and/or create a new royalty record. An “Unmatched Sale” may occur if we are receiving your label from another distributor.

Release: A release is consisted of a Single, EP, and/or a full album. The name of that product is listed here. Some partners (particularly streaming partners) do not provide a release name at times and thus, you would see N/A in there. Release sales will typically show the release name but nothing in the track title field because it is only a full release sale.

Track Title: The song title is listed here. If it was a single sale and/or stream, the Release Name is typically left blank but the track name that you wrote and chose is listed here.

Track Artist: The primary artist for that track is listed here. You won’t see the remixer and possibly, you will not see featuring artist in this field. You can see that data within your account.

Remixer Name: If there is a remixer on the track, then the artist name for that Remixer will be shown in this column. If not, it will remain blank and/or with a N/A.

Remix: This is typically where mix version is placed (IE: Original Mix) and/or the remixer version. So as an example, DJ Patrick Remix may show up in this column if that was the remixer that remixed the track.

Territory: This is a three letter territory designation that shows you where the sale or stream occurred.

Service Criteria: A field originally created from Beatport’s royalty report, you will see certain types of line items labeled differently. We typically post: General Content (Most content), Classic (for classic releases that are more than 10 years old), Content ID (for YouTube Monetization), Channel Management (If we manage your YouTube Channel, Exclusive (if the release was Exclusive to say, Beatport), Soundcloud Monetization, and more.

Format: Not all partners report formats thus, if a format is not reported by a partner, we revert to the format that we sent. Most streaming platforms stream content in FLAC format thus, you’ll see that in the reports. Other formats to be listed include MP3, WAV, MP4, STEM, and ZIP files which correspond to Sample Packs.

Delivery: In this column we list how the customer consumed the track and/or release. You will see cells filled with Download, Streaming, Webcasting to correspond to the various forms of how that music is/was consumed.

Content Type: This is where we list if the sale or stream was a Single, Release, Ringtone, User Generated Content (YouTube Content ID), Neighboring Rights, STEM Distribution, YouTube Channel, and/or Soundcloud Profile. The more the industry evolves, the more content types we will continue to add to the reporting.

Count: If you had a Single and/or Release sale or stream, the individual count reported by a partner will be listed here. In the event a partner does not report this, then we place a 1. MOST partners report a track count. Further, our system will take a Release Sale and split it among all of the tracks contained within that Release as Singles and place a number of 0. With Streaming, it can be complex to understand as you may see a lot of track counts but a little dollar amount. Every streaming provider has different pay rates for different territories for different times of the year so there is no set streaming rate for any partner. Lastly, if there is a return or a “Voided Transaction” then the track count would show a negative before it (IE: -1)

Net To Label Royalty: This is the net amount owed to you for the period. All of the fees are taken out to show you exactly what it is you earned for the period.

Sale or Void: You will typically see Sale or Void here. A Sale is considered a download, stream, or play on any ad based platform. A Void is considered a return and/or a fraudulent downloaded transaction that is deducted.

Accounting Period: We report monthly. The period that the report corresponds to will be shown here.

Reporting Month: This will refer to the month of which the sale or stream occurred. Some partners do not report month but many do. Further, you may see a previous month from a previous period on a report and that is if the partner is late to report. As an example, if we don’t receive royalties for a partner for the month of June, it would show on the next quarterly report which would likely show royalties for July, and so on if they continue to be late.

Artist To Pay: As mentioned, our system auto matches any sale or stream to your catalog. If it detects a match, it makes an assumption that the main artist to pay is the Primary Artist. It is impossible for us to list every single artist to pay as releases can contain many artists (thus why we list some as Various/NA to note that these are Various Artists and/or Not Available).

Important Notes:
-N/A means that there is no data available for that corresponding field. This may occur frequently as not all providers provide data. For example, Catalog numbers are typically found in EDM based partners but not necessarily in mainstream providers.

-“Balance Forwarded From Previous Quarter or Period” means that there is a balance that was either not claimed or not over the threshold to be claimed. This is typically found in the “Retailer” column.

-For a partner that reports quarterly and not monthly, we revert to show the last month of the quarter we’re reporting. So, as an example, if we have Partner that reported for Q2’17 and didn’t provide a month, we’ll go by June as the last month of that quarter.

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