
Everything You Need to Know
About NEWM Studio
General Overview
Stream Tokens are digital tokens that show that the owner has bought, and/or is entitled to receive, a percentage of streaming royalties (sometimes with additional perks and experiences, depending on what artists decide).
When a fan collects the Stream Tokens for a song, they’re able to claim a portion of the royalties generated by streaming the song, which they begin to accrue from the moment the tokens are in their wallet.
Minting music means permanently recording it on the blockchain in the form of an RFT (Rich-Fungible Token), which includes all the essential details about the song, such as a 30-second sample of the track, royalties, agreements, and other relevant information. In NEWM Studio, these RFTs are known as Stream Tokens and represent the streaming royalty rights of the minted track, as well as facilitate automated royalty distribution and payment splits.
- Headache-Free Payouts: Welcome to the pain-free way to do music payouts! Stream Tokens make it easy to automate royalty distribution for all contributors on a track and ensure every artist is fairly compensated.
- Royalties and revenue: Fractionalizing and selling streaming royalties of a track provides you with a new source of revenue, allowing your fans to support you directly, while getting the chance to earn a percentage of streaming royalties on their favorite music.
- Direct fan engagement: Stream Tokens facilitate direct interaction between artists and fans, as fans can own and trade unique digital assets associated with the track, enabling artists to build stronger relationships and offer exclusive perks, experiences or content.
- Increased exposure: Fractionizing and minting a track as Stream Tokens can attract attention and exposure from the growing blockchain community, potentially reaching new audiences.
- Creative control: Artists can set specific conditions for the Stream Tokens’ use, such as tokengating to grant access to exclusive content (NFTs on the RecordStore for example) for Stream Token holders, giving them more control over their work.
Once a song is uploaded, the minting and distributing process can begin. Minting and distributing music on NEWM takes (on average) 11 days per track, but could take up to 15 days, depending on the quality control checks by our distribution partner. Take a look at our ‘Best Practices’ guide for more info on making sure your release meets guidelines.
Account creation and basic functionality on NEWM Studio are free, meaning you can create your profile and upload (not distribute) songs, or join as a collaborator at no cost.
Music distribution services cost 14.99 USD (pricing changes and limited-time discounts will be listed on the website and reflected in the NEWM Studio payment process) per release. In addition to this, to complete the song minting process for each release, a network fee of ~3.3 $ADA is required, with an additional 1.3 $ADA per collaborator receiving royalty splits. In the future, we’ll be rolling out multi-tiered plans to best meet the artists’ needs.
You can sign up for NEWM Studio and navigate the platform without connecting a wallet, however, in order to distribute and mint your songs you will need to connect an $ADA-compatible wallet. While we encourage users to do their research and select the one that aligns best with their preferences, here are some user-friendly wallets to consider if you’re just starting out:
Remember, each wallet has its unique features, so take your time to explore and find the one that suits you best!
Yes, the KYC process is performed to prevent illegal activities in return protecting both company and clients. But don’t worry, NEWM does not store any of your information. Our partner, iDenfy, securely manages all user data related to KYC, while upholding stringent data protection practices. Notably, iDenfy is certified under ISO 27001:2013, demonstrating their commitment to maintaining the highest standards of information security.
Once distributed through NEWM, your music will be available on 130+ music streaming and download platforms through our distribution partner. These platforms include, but are not limited to:
- Spotify
- Apple Music
- Amazon Music
- YouTube Music
- Deezer
- Tidal
- Pandora
- Google Play Music
- iHeartRadio
- Napster
- and many more!
Platform Details
First, it's important to understand the distinction between "Distributing" and "Minting." Distribution is the process of getting your song onto streaming platforms, while minting involves creating digital tokens with certain characteristics. In this case the tokens created will represent a specific percentage of streaming royalties.
Here's the step-by-step explanation of the minting process with NEWM Studio:
- Uploading: The artist initiates the process by uploading the audio file of their song along with relevant metadata, which includes song details, album artwork, and other pertinent information. Check out our ‘Best Practices’ guide for more info.
- Collaborators and Splits: If there are collaborators (i.e. people who helped create the track and are entitled to a percentage of royalties) involved, the artist adds the collaborators and defines their agreed upon royalty percentage splits. Please note that collaborators MUST have a NEWM Studio Account along with a connected wallet in order to claim future royalties.
- Payment: Before moving forward with the minting and distribution process, the artist must complete payment for the release. Once payment is made, the track will move on to the next step.
- Quality Control: Upon completing payment the song, along with all the relevant data, is ready to be submitted to our distribution partner for quality control checks. This ensures that the song meets the necessary standards for distribution. Check out our ‘Best Practices’ guide for more info.
- Distribution: Upon passing quality control, the distribution partner proceeds to distribute the song to a variety of streaming services (as well as generate any specific release codes if needed). Once generated, you’ll be able to find these codes in your NEWM Studio Account.
- Notification and Updates: At this point, NEWM is informed of the outcome of the distribution process. If successful, the platform automatically updates the song's metadata and status.
Minting: As soon as NEWM is notified, the system simultaneously initiates the minting process and creates digital tokens representing streaming royalties for your uploaded song and distributes them to their respective owners. In the meantime, you’ll receive email notifications with specific updates throughout the process.
Various minting statuses appear throughout the minting and distributing process to help you track your song’s progress. Here’s a quick explanation of each status on NEWM Studio:
- Undistributed: The song has not yet been sent for distribution.
- Awaiting Collaborator Approval: Distribution is on hold until all collaborators approve their roles and splits.
- Distribution/Minting in Process: The song is actively being distributed and minted.
- Distributed: The song has successfully reached streaming platforms, but minting is still in progress.
- Minted: The tokens representing streaming royalties have been successfully minted.
- Released: The entire process, including minting and distributing, is complete and your song is available for stream on all major platforms.
- Declined: Distribution or minting may be declined due to various reasons, and further action is needed to resolve the issue.
- An error occurred: This status signifies a problem in the distribution or minting process that requires investigation and resolution.
There are two copyrights you will either need to hold yourself, or have acquired the proper permissions and/or license(s) from the copyright holder(s) in order to mint:
- Sound Recording Copyright (℗)
- Composition Copyright (©)
The sound recording copyright covers the recording itself. It does not cover the music, lyrics, words, or other underlying content embodied in that recording. This copyright is often owned by the artist and/or record label.
The musical composition copyright covers the music and lyrics, if any, embodied in that composition, but it does not cover a recorded performance of that composition. This copyright is often owned by the songwriter and/or music publisher.
If you are not the copyright holder for ALL of the sound recording (i.e. this recording is a remix or uses samples from other sound recordings), and/or if you are not the copyright holder for ALL of the song composition (i.e. this song is a cover or uses composition parts from other works), you will need to secure and provide the proper permission(s) and/or license(s) from the copyright holder(s) in order to mint and distribute this song.
If you need more information, or if you have secured the necessary permissions/licenses, please submit a request to proceed.
If you have already distributed music under the artist name that you registered on NEWM Studio, we highly recommend that you provide the Artist Profile URL for each outlet (DSP) in the artist information section of your profile. Doing so will ensure that your music and artist profiles are linked, and help mitigate issues and/or confusion if there is another artist by the same artist name.
If you are a first-time distributor, or are distributing music under a new artist name and do not have any artist profiles, simply continue the minting and distributing process and the artist profiles will be generated for you.
Most profile links can be found by going to your personal profile on the DSP (Spotify, Apple Music, Soundcloud, etc.). Simply click the three dots on your profile, then choose share and copy the provided link. Alternatively, you can locate your artist profile using a desktop browser. Just go to the designated DSP, search for your artist name, and copy the profile URL from the search bar.
When submitting cover art for track distribution through our distribution partner, there are certain restrictions that must be adhered to. These guidelines, as outlined by our distribution partner, help ensure the quality and appropriateness of cover art. Here are the restrictions to keep in mind:
- Content Restrictions: Cover art should not contain additional information such as roles, instruments, "Produced By," "Presents," track lists, logos, barcodes, social-media information, production details, ads, audio format logos or information, release dates, contact information, codes, or URLs.
- Misleading Content: Cover art must not be misleading. For example, it should not prominently depict or reference an artist who does not perform on the album.
- Adult Content: Cover art must not contain explicit images or any URLs leading to websites with explicit content.
- Parental Advisory Tag: While the parental advisory tag is no longer mandatory, if included, it should adhere to the standard Parental Advisory Label or be omitted altogether.
Adhering to these guidelines will help ensure a smooth submission process and avoid potential rejection of track distribution. For further clarification or additional questions regarding cover art restrictions, please don't hesitate to reach out to our support team.
To claim your royalties, navigate to the Wallet page to view your available earnings, then click “Claim Earnings” to transfer them to your wallet. All royalties will be paid out in $NEWM tokens (you will be able to trade/sell these for USD on a designated DEX or CEX listed here: newm.io/token).
Royalty payouts from streaming platforms typically take around 90 days for newly distributed tracks to reach the NEWM Studio, though timelines may vary based on the streaming service and the royalties generated by each track.
Once royalties are available on the NEWM Studio, there’s no limit to how often you can claim them. You can claim your royalties as frequently as you like whenever funds are accrued in your account.
It has to do with the basic functionality of the blockchain, which doesn’t allow anyone to send tokens on their own (i.e. without $ADA) to user wallets. Without this safeguard, there's a risk of flooding the blockchain with dummy token transactions, hindering its functionality. Therefore, to enable the transfer of NEWM tokens on the blockchain, they must be accompanied by a certain amount of $ADA to prevent this kind of attack. This precaution, while greatly beneficial to blockchain security, also makes the process of distributing stream tokens to user wallets pretty costly.
By implementing a claiming process, users have the flexibility to accumulate tokens on our platform. When they choose to claim them, they cover a transaction fee plus 1.3 $ADA, allowing us to attach it to the NEWM tokens and safely transfer them back to their wallet. This approach ensures a secure and efficient token distribution process.
Of course! NEWM Studio supports both streaming and the distribution of digital downloads, allowing you to cater to different preferences and revenue streams. Whether your fans prefer to listen on the go or keep your tracks for offline enjoyment, we've got you covered.
No, we don't retain any of your streaming royalties or Intellectual Property (IP) – and we never will. At NEWM, we prioritize and respect your creative rights. When you use our platform to distribute your music, you retain full ownership and control over your intellectual property, as you rightfully should. Your creative work is yours to protect and profit from as you see fit.
Not at all. Once you've distributed your song through NEWM, your music will remain distributed on streaming platforms in perpetuity, ensuring your fans can continue to enjoy it without any additional charges to you.
Troubleshooting
Don’t worry, typically a page refresh is all that is needed to trigger an automatic connection between your wallet and the platform.
However, if you've tried refreshing without success and your wallet still won't connect, please reach out through our Discord or connect with our Artist Relations team at [email protected].