02
How-to
Split sheets: the 15-minute contract that saves bands from themselves
Most royalty disputes aren't about bad actors. They're about good people who never wrote anything down.
Issue 14 · January 2026
The music business, examined honestly.
Bad Royalties covers the money side of the music industry — what artists actually earn, what platforms actually take, and what changes when the rules quietly shift. Written for working musicians, independent labels, and the people who advise them.
— Featured analysis
Why Spotify's per-stream payout is still broken in 2026
The demonetization threshold didn't fix artist economics. It reshuffled who gets paid and pushed everyone else further down the long tail. Two years in, we have enough data to say what actually happened.
The latest
03
Explainer
Sync licensing: what indie artists get wrong about TV and ad money
Sync isn't a lottery ticket, and it's not "passive income." It's a slow channel with clearer ROI than most artists think.
04
Review
DistroKid full review: is it still the default in 2026?
A decade in, DistroKid is still the first service most indie artists try. Whether it's still the right one is harder.
05
News
AI music on Spotify: who actually gets paid when nobody is listening?
The streaming pool is a fixed pie. Every AI-generated stream that counts pulls a slice away from a human artist.
06
Explainer
How neighboring rights royalties actually work
If you've been played on radio, in a bar, or on a broadcaster anywhere — there's almost certainly money sitting in an account.
07
Opinion
The real math on playlist pitching services
Some pitching services are legitimately useful. Most are repackaging things you could do yourself for free, at a 40× markup.
08
Explainer
Mechanical royalties, explained for songwriters who also record
If you write your own songs and release them, you're two distinct legal entities being paid by two separate systems.
09
Analysis
Bandcamp Fridays are back — what the data actually shows
Three years of monthly sales spikes, two ownership changes, one data set worth looking at.
10
How-to
Release strategy: why singles-first still wins in 2026
The album isn't dead. But releasing one all at once — and hoping playlists catch it — is a bad strategy and getting worse.