Presentation: Streaming Royalties Explained

Slide 1 of 7 · Settling starter · Music · Year 8

4 minutes

Streaming royalties explained: follow 1 month of money to 1 band

You have a worksheet and, between 2 of you, a stimulus sheet called One month of streaming money. It describes an invented streaming service, Tonfedd, and an invented band from Aberystwyth, Y Niwl Coch. Today you work out what 1 stream is worth, split the band’s month between the label, the publisher and the 4 members, and decide whether it is fair.

While the register is called: write your name, class and date on your worksheet, then read sections 1 and 2 of the stimulus sheet.

Starter question: Of every £10 a subscriber pays Tonfedd, how much does Tonfedd keep?

DCF: Citizenship → Digital rights, licensing and ownership No computers needed · calculators 1 per pair · everything on the sheet is invented

Slide 2 of 7 · Today’s brief and key words · Music · Year 8

2 minutes

Your brief: who owns what, what a stream is worth, is it fair, is it yours

You will tick who is paid from which copyright (Part A), work out the 2 pots and the value of 1 stream (Part B), fill in the band’s month and split it (Part C), answer 3 fairness questions with working (Part D), and explain why a streaming library is a licence, not a collection (Part E).

Song copyright

The melody and lyrics as written. Owned by the writers, usually with a publisher. PRS for Music collects the money for it.

Recording copyright

One particular performance captured as audio. Usually owned by the label that paid for it, which pays the performers a royalty.

Pro-rata

All subscribers’ money goes into 1 pot, and 1 stream is worth the pot divided by the total streams that month.

DCF: Citizenship → Digital rights, licensing and ownership Write full numbers: £0.0022, not “0.2p”

Slide 3 of 7 · Parts A and B: who owns what, what 1 stream is worth · Music · Year 8

13 minutes

Part A & Part B: tick the ownership table, then work out the 2 pots

Part A (6 min): for each of the 8 rows tick song side, recording side or neither, and give a reason. Part B (7 min): use section 1 to find the recording pot and the song pot, then divide each by 2,500,000,000 streams. Show your working.

Who	Song side	Recording side	Neither	Why
1. Elin: wrote lyrics and melody, sings	Yes	Yes		She co-owns the songs as a writer, and gets a royalty on the recordings as a performer.

Part B model: recording pot is 55% of £10,000,000 = £5,500,000. Now divide it by the streams, then do the same for the song pot (15%).

Parts A and B on your worksheet · 13 minutes Some rows get both, some get neither

Supply teacher script (no subject knowledge needed)

Say aloud: “Row 1 is on the board: copy it. Elin wrote the songs and sings on the recordings, so she is paid from both. Do the other 7 rows with a reason each. Then Part B: the recording pot is on the board, £5,500,000. Divide it by 2,500,000,000 streams. Then find the song pot, 15% of £10,000,000, and divide that too.”

Quick check, Part A: 2 Lowri, recording side (on the recordings, wrote nothing). 3 Cyhoeddiadau Glas the publisher, song side (looks after the songs, keeps 25%). 4 Label Cefn Gwlad, recording side (paid for the recordings so owns them). 5 PRS for Music, song side (collects song money and passes it on; it collects, it does not own). 6 Tonfedd, neither (it pays for a licence to both; its 30% is for running the service). 7 The choir’s cover, recording side, their own new recording; the song is still Elin and Tomos’s. 8 Mali, neither: she pays for a licence to listen and owns nothing.

Quick check, Part B: recording: £5,500,000 ÷ 2,500,000,000 = £0.0022 per stream. Song: 15% of £10,000,000 = £1,500,000, ÷ 2,500,000,000 = £0.0006 per stream. Total £0.0028, which is 0.28p: about 357 streams to make £1 between everyone who made the track.

Slide 4 of 7 · Part C: Y Niwl Coch’s month · Music · Year 8

11 minutes

Part C on your worksheet: the band’s 5 tracks, then split the money

Multiply each track’s streams (section 4) by £0.0022 for recording money and by £0.0006 for song money. Total both columns. Then split them using the deals in section 3: label keeps 80% of recording money, band shares 20% equally between 4; publisher keeps 25% of song money, writers share 75%.

Track	Streams	Recording money (£)	Song money (£)
Golau’r Harbwr	420,000	924.00	252.00

Copy row 1, then do the other 4 tracks. Check at the end: your 6 totals in the second table must add up to the recording total plus the song total.

Part C on your worksheet · 11 minutes, calculators out Cân i Mam was written by Elin alone: split its song money differently

Supply teacher script (no subject knowledge needed)

Say aloud: “Row 1 is on the board: 420,000 times £0.0022 is £924, and 420,000 times £0.0006 is £252. Copy it, then do the other 4 tracks and total the columns. Then the second table: the label takes 80% of the recording total, the band splits the other 20% 4 ways. The publisher takes 25% of the song total and the writers share 75%. Careful: 4 songs are split 50/50 between Elin and Tomos, but Cân i Mam is Elin’s alone.”

Quick check, first table: Traeth Tanybwlch 260,000 → 572.00 / 156.00; Dim Signal 180,000 → 396.00 / 108.00; Hiraeth yn y Glaw 90,000 → 198.00 / 54.00; Cân i Mam 50,000 → 110.00 / 30.00; totals 1,000,000 streams, £2,200.00 recording and £600.00 song.

Quick check, second table: Label Cefn Gwlad 80% of 2,200 = £1,760.00. Cyhoeddiadau Glas 25% of 600 = £150.00. Band’s 20% of recordings is £440, ÷ 4 = £110.00 each. Songs: writers’ 75% of the 4 shared songs is 75% of (252 + 156 + 108 + 54) = 75% of 570 = £427.50, split 50/50 = £213.75 each; Cân i Mam is 75% of 30 = £22.50 to Elin only. So Elin 110 + 236.25 = £346.25, Tomos 110 + 213.75 = £323.75, Siôn £110.00, Lowri £110.00. Check: 1,760 + 150 + 346.25 + 323.75 + 110 + 110 = £2,800 = 2,200 + 600. The 4 band members get £890 of the £2,800, about 32%.

Slide 5 of 7 · Parts D and E: is it fair, and does Mali own her music · Music · Year 8

15 minutes

Part D & Part E: 3 fairness questions with working, then ownership

Part D (9 min): D1 how many streams for Lowri to earn £1,000; D2 self-release through a distributor keeping 15%; D3 Mali’s 150 streams under pro-rata and user-centric (section 5). Part E (6 min): E1 does Mali own 3,000 songs, using the word licence; E2 an explainer of 80 words or fewer for a Year 7 band.

D1 working, as a model	Answer
1 stream gives £0.0022 recording money. The band gets 20% = £0.00044. Lowri gets a quarter of that = £0.00011 per stream. £1,000 ÷ £0.00011 = ?	About 9.1 million streams in 1 month, more than 9 times what the band actually got.

Copy the D1 working. Then D2 and D3 need the same kind of working: numbers first, then a sentence about fairness.

Parts D and E on your worksheet · 15 minutes Every answer needs working and a sentence, not just a number

Supply teacher script (no subject knowledge needed)

Say aloud: “D1 is on the board as a model of what working looks like: copy it. Nine minutes for D2 and D3 with the same kind of working, then 6 minutes for Part E. E1 must use the word licence. E2 is 80 words or fewer: tell a Year 7 band the 2 things they own and 1 question to ask before they sign anything.”

Quick check, Part D: D2: 85% of £2,200 = £1,870, ÷ 4 = £467.50 each, more than 4 times the £110 they get now. A reason to stay with the label: it paid for the studio and the promotion and may have paid an advance; without it the band might get far fewer than a million streams. D3: pro-rata: 150 × £0.0028 = £0.42. User-centric: Mali’s £10 minus Tonfedd’s 30% leaves £7; 150 of her 200 streams is 75%, so 75% of £7 = £5.25. They differ because under pro-rata her £7 goes into the national pot shared by everyone’s streams, and her 200 streams are only worth 200 × £0.0028 = 56p of it; most of her money pays for music played by heavier streamers.

Quick check, Part E: E1: No. Mali has a licence to listen while she keeps paying and while Tonfedd keeps its licences with the labels and publishers. A song vanishes if she stops paying, if a licence ends, or if a label takes an album off the service. She owns no songs, no recordings, not even a copy. E2: a good explainer says the track is 2 things: the song belongs to whoever wrote it, the recording to whoever paid for it; agree the songwriting split in writing now and join PRS for Music; and before signing ask “Who will own our recordings, and for how long?” Count the words: 80 or fewer.

Slide 6 of 7 · Self and partner check · Music · Year 8

3 minutes

Swap with your partner and check against the success criteria

Check your partner’s Part C total comes to £2,800 and that their E1 uses the word licence. Tick the criteria, swap back and correct 1 thing.

I can explain the difference between the copyright in a song and the copyright in a recording, and say who is paid from each.
I can work out what 1 stream is worth from a pot of money and a total number of streams.
I can split a month’s income using the terms of a label deal and a publishing deal, and my totals check.
I can use the figures to argue whether the system is fair, comparing a label deal with self-release and pro-rata with user-centric.
I can explain that streaming gives a licence to listen, not ownership, and say what that means in practice.

3 minutes · partner check Finished early? Subscription rises to £12, streams stay the same: what happens to 1 stream?

Supply teacher script (no subject knowledge needed)

Say aloud: “Swap worksheets. Does your partner’s Part C check come to £2,800? Does E1 use the word licence? Tick the criteria they have met, swap back and correct 1 thing.”

Extension answers: if the subscription rises from £10 to £12 with the same streams, the pot grows by 20%, so 1 stream is worth 20% more: £0.0022 becomes £0.00264 recording and £0.0006 becomes £0.00072 song, £0.00336 in total. Equal 25% songwriting split: the writers’ £450 of song money (427.50 + 22.50) would be £112.50 each, so Siôn and Lowri gain £112.50 and Elin and Tomos lose (Elin from £236.25, Tomos from £213.75); whether that is fairer is a matter of argument. PRS stands for Performing Right Society; PPL collects for recordings and performers, which PRS does not.

Slide 7 of 7 · Plenary review · Music · Year 8

2 minutes

Round the room, then quick-check answers before handing in

Everyone names 1 person or organisation from Part A and which side pays them, no repeats. Then check these answers.

Question	Correct answer
What is 1 stream worth in total on Tonfedd this month?	£0.0028: £0.0022 recording plus £0.0006 song. About 357 streams for £1.
How much did Lowri earn this month, and how much did the label earn?	Lowri £110. Label Cefn Gwlad £1,760.
Does Mali own her 3,000 saved songs?	No. She has a licence to listen, which ends if she stops paying or the service loses the rights.

Check your name and class are on your worksheet Worksheets in · stimulus sheets and calculators back to the front