Account creation and basic functionality on NEWM Studio are complimentary, meaning you can create your profile and upload (not distribute) songs, or join as a collaborator for free. 

Music distribution services cost 14.99 USD (currently discounted to 9.99 USD for a limited time) 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 involved. In the future, we’ll be rolling out multi-tiered plans to best meet the artists’ needs.

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:

1. 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.

2. Collaborators and Splits: If there are collaborators (i.e., people who helped create the track and are entitled to a percentage of streaming royalties) involved, the artist sets up the collaborators and defines their royalty percentage splits.

3. Quality Control: NEWM submits the song, along with all the relevant data, to our distribution partner for quality control checks. This ensures that the song meets the necessary standards for distribution.

4. 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).

5. Notifications 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.

6. 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.

Once distributed through NEWM, your music will be available on 130+ music streaming and digital 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!

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). However, royalty claiming will not be available until the release of our marketplace, but don’t worry – any royalties from streaming will continue accruing until they can be claimed. 

Once claiming is available, the projected timeline for royalty payouts is around six months, but this may vary depending on streaming platforms. More details on the claiming process will be made available once the marketplace goes live. In the meantime, be sure to join our communities (links in footer) where you’ll be the first to receive a notification when claiming becomes available.

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.

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. We currently recommend Eternl, Vespr and NuFi.