OohYeah offers a unique commission-free, royalty-free model that empowers artists, including songwriters, to control their earnings. Instead of paying royalties per stream or taking a cut from sales, OohYeah focuses on allowing artists to sell music directly to fans while retaining the majority of the revenue. This document explains the payment process for songwriters using OohYeah.
How Songwriters Earn on OohYeah
OohYeah enables songwriters to manage their revenue streams and get paid fairly through music sales, merchandise, and other products. Here’s how the process works:
1. Artist Uploads Music
The process begins when an artist, including a songwriter, uploads their music to OohYeah.
The artist sets the price for their song or album, determining how much they will earn from each sale.
2. Fan Purchases Music
When a fan buys a song or album on OohYeah, the payment goes directly to the artist’s PayPal business account.
OohYeah does not take a commission from these sales, so artists keep the full sale price.
3. Artist Distributes Royalties
While OohYeah doesn’t handle publishing royalties, the artist is responsible for distributing royalties to the relevant songwriters.
Artists must register their songs with a Performing Rights Organization (PRO), such as ASCAP, BMI, or SOCAN, to ensure that the songwriters receive their share of publishing royalties.
The PRO will calculate and distribute the royalties based on the songwriters' credits.
4. No Pay-Per-Stream Model
OohYeah does not participate in a per-stream payout model, unlike many traditional streaming services.
This eliminates streaming fraud—a practice where bots or fake plays artificially inflate song metrics.
Instead, OohYeah focuses on direct purchases (downloads) and merchandise sales, ensuring that the artist and songwriter receive fair compensation based on actual sales rather than fake streaming metrics.
What is Streaming Fraud?
Streaming fraud, also known as artificial streaming or streaming manipulation, involves the use of bots or streaming farms to artificially inflate the number of plays a song or album receives. This dishonest practice is used to create a false sense of success, often with the aim of boosting rankings or generating revenue.
How Widespread is Streaming Fraud?
Streaming fraud is more prevalent than one might think. A study by France’s Centre Nationale de la Musique (CNM) revealed that in 2021, between 1-3% of all streams in France were fraudulent, amounting to 1 to 3 billion fake streams.
Spotify reported that 0.23% of its top 10,000 streams exhibited signs of artificial streaming, and 1.14% of all streams in its catalog were flagged for similar activity. While streaming platforms are actively working to combat this issue, streaming fraud remains a significant problem.
Why is Streaming Fraud Problematic?
Once streaming fraud occurs, it can be difficult to prevent or reverse the damage. Many legitimate artists fall victim to this deceptive practice, which can undermine their credibility and negatively affect their revenue. Fake streams not only skew the perception of success but also harm the integrity of the music industry, creating a false narrative around an artist’s popularity.
Why OohYeah Does Not Believe in the Pay-Per-Stream Model
OohYeah’s decision to operate without a pay-per-stream model is rooted in a commitment to fairness and transparency for artists. Unlike traditional streaming services, which rely on fractional payouts based on streaming volume, OohYeah enables artists to sell their music to fans directly. Here’s why OohYeah rejects the pay-per-stream model:
Prevents Streaming Fraud: By focusing on music sales rather than streams, OohYeah eliminates the possibility of fraudulent plays artificially inflating metrics. Artists can be sure that their revenue reflects actual fan engagement rather than fake plays.
Fairer Compensation: OohYeah believes artists should be compensated based on actual purchases, not an arbitrary per-stream payout. This approach ensures that artists keep a larger portion of their revenue and are not subject to the manipulation of streaming metrics.
More Control for Artists: The commission-free model allows artists to control how their music is priced and how they earn from their fans. With no middleman taking a percentage, artists have the ability to maintain a fair and direct relationship with their fanbase.
Transparency: OohYeah provides artists with clear and direct data on their sales and earnings, which allows for more accurate revenue tracking and better royalty distribution.
Key Features for Songwriters on OohYeah
High Artist Payouts
Artists and songwriters keep the majority of the sale price because OohYeah does not charge commission fees.
Direct Payments to PayPal
Payments for music sales go directly to the artist’s PayPal account without deductions from OohYeah.
This ensures a transparent and immediate payout process.
Publishing Royalties through PROs
Songwriters receive publishing royalties from PROs, not from OohYeah.
The artist must ensure that the sales data is reported to the PRO for proper distribution of royalties.
Transparency and Control
OohYeah provides detailed sales data, enabling artists to track their revenue and manage royalty distribution fairly and transparently.
Songwriters can ensure their credits are properly recognized, and royalties are correctly distributed.
Summary
OohYeah provides a commission-free, royalty-free platform where songwriters can sell their music directly to fans without the interference of traditional streaming payouts. By managing their sales through the platform, songwriters receive direct payments to their PayPal accounts, and they maintain control over their publishing royalties through PROs. With detailed sales data and a fraud-free environment, OohYeah ensures that songwriters are fairly compensated for their work.