1. Time frames for receiving reports and money from music platforms on Muzee
Music venues pay out money (and provide reports along with it) at different rates and for different periods. Below are the current approximate due dates for money and reports from several major platforms. From the fastest to the slowest.
YouTube and YouTube Music - monthly - at the end of the month following the reporting month (for example, for January at the end of February).
Apple Music/iTunes - monthly - at the end of the second month following the reporting month (for example, for January at the end of March).
Spotify - monthly - at the end of the third month following the reporting month (for example, for January at the end of April).
VK - quarterly - at the end of the second month after the end of the quarter (for example, for the first quarter - January-March - at the end of May).
Yandex Music - quarterly - at the end of the third month after the end of the quarter (for example, for the first quarter - January-March - at the end of June).
2. Accruing money and adding reports to Muzee accounts
We collect all the reports we receive by the 20th of each month and process them using the Muzee platform we developed.
Our catalog has many thousands of songs, for each of them we get at least dozens or even hundreds (sometimes thousands) of lines of reports from different platforms, so everything is done only with the help of software, with accuracy to the penny. And the processing goes exactly on the platform where you have accounts - that is, there is no such thing that we process everything separately somewhere, and then unload it.
The main advantage is that you see the processed figures of the reports directly, without intermediaries. But there are "technical periods" when the data in your account may give an inaccurate picture of some parameters. It happens because there is gradual processing of the reports. Most often this happens between the 20th of the month and the day the money is accrued (usually the 27th or 28th of the month).
The stages of report processing on Muzee and the nuances associated with them:
A) Initial processing of reports - the total amount for the artist is correct, but the data on the artist's share of remuneration may not match.
B) Allocation between the artist and the label - once we've done this, on the Muzee account you already have everything accurate and correct, but in the Mediacube Pay account this money doesn't appear immediately, you have to wait.
C) Accrual in Mediacube Pay - you can easily see this step in the section "Transactions" in Mediacube Pay, where each accrual from Muzee is written in a separate line with the month of accrual. From now until the next processing of reports (tentatively on the 20th of the month) all data on Muzee and Mediacube Pay accounts are completely correct.
3. Analytics on the Muzee account
You can go to the "Revenue" tab in your Muzee account (where you've uploaded your music) and see analytics by category: "Releases", "Tracks", "Stores", "Countries", "Dates" and "Sales Types" (the switch is in the upper left corner of the page). You can sort the columns with numbers in the lower table with the data by clicking on their names in ascending or descending order.
But the good thing is that you can go deeper into any of the categories by clicking on the desired field in the lower data table. For example, in the "Releases" category, click on one of the releases and see which songs were the most popular (or most profitable). And then click on any of those songs and see which platforms had more auditions and which had more revenue.
All applied filters at a particular moment are displayed on the top line above the table with graphs. You can go back to any level before by just clicking on it. Or reset all filters by clicking the cross.
4. Accruals from Muzee to Mediacube Pay account
It is important to understand that the accrual in Mediacube Pay is signed by the month in which it was made by us, and there will be money from different platforms for different periods. For example, if we charge you at the end of June, it will almost certainly include payments for the first quarter from Yandex Music, for March from Spotify, for April from Apple Music/iTunes, and for May from YouTube/YouTube Music.
A reasonable question: how to control the transparency of payments? You should have the same total amount of accruals on Muzee account and the number of accruals from Muzee account on Mediacube Pay (summarize the lines in the "Transactions" section). Such comparisons should be made in the period between the latest accrual (check in Mediacube Pay "Transactions") and the 20th of the next month.