Guide · How-to
How to read a royalty statement
Royalty statements are dense and every distributor formats them differently — but they all answer the same question: what did you actually earn? Here is how to read one, and why it is the starting point for valuing your catalogue.
The columns that matter
- Period — the months the statement covers (sales period, not payment date).
- Store / platform — Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, etc.
- Territory / country — where the streams happened.
- Track + ISRC — the recording (see what an ISRC is).
- Units / streams and your net earnings — the line that counts.
Step by step
- Confirm the period so you compare like-for-like.
- Sum your net earnings across every platform and territory — not gross.
- Ignore subtotal / total rows so you don't double-count.
- Normalise currencies to one before adding.
- Annualise: if the statement covers six months, your annual income is roughly double (adjust for seasonality).
The shortcut
Doing this by hand across several distributors, currencies and periods is slow and error-prone. A Catalogue Report reconciles all of it automatically — across platforms, periods and currencies — and turns it straight into a valuation.
Skip the spreadsheet. Upload your statements and Arbiter reconciles them into a certified valuation.
Run a Catalogue Report →Frequently asked
How do I read a royalty statement?
To read a royalty statement: identify the period, then locate the platform/store, territory, track title, units/streams and your net earnings per line. Sum your net earnings across platforms and periods for total income. Ignore subtotal rows. Arbiter reconciles this across formats and currencies automatically.
General information, not investment, legal or tax advice. Valuing music rights involves assumptions and uncertainty; past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.