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Issue Nº 35Live · August 26, 2026Weekly · Tuesdays

The Brief.

A weekly dispatch on streaming, royalties, marketing and the music industry — written from real campaign data, not theory.

In the archive

333 dispatches

Read by

5,000+ artists

All Streaming121 Marketing73 Business59 Touring16 Money44 Career20

Money

Filed under Money

A car dashboard at golden hour shot from the passenger seat: a hand with a woven bracelet on the wheel, a satellite radio head unit glowing blue, a phone in a vent mount playing a radio app, and a parking garage ticket tucked at the windshield edge.

SoundExchange Explained (2026): Register + Claim Royalties

Daniel Brooks14 min read

A pressing plant quality-control bench: a gloved hand holding a fresh black LP over a glowing light table, stacks of white-sleeved test pressings with handwritten sticker notes including a reject flag, a clipboard checklist, a loupe on a jacket proof and vinyl shavings on the bench.

Vinyl Pressing Cost in 2026: Real Prices + Break-Even Math

Daniel Brooks15 min read

A kitchen counter at dusk: a phone propped against a fruit bowl showing a blurred subscription renewal notice, printed bank statements with subscription lines highlighted in three marker colors, reading glasses, a pen and a French press.

Streaming Price Increases 2026: Do Artists Get Paid More?

Daniel Brooks12 min read

A musician's budgeting desk with cash notes sorted into three labeled envelopes, a notebook with a handwritten promotion plan, a phone showing a streaming dashboard and a calculator under warm lamp light.

Music Promotion Budget Guide 2026: $100, $500, $1,000

Daniel Brooks14 min read

A clean desk with a printed price sheet, a calculator, a cup of coffee and a laptop showing a plans page as a soft-focus silhouette in bright morning light.

Chartlex Pricing 2026: Every Plan and What You Get

Chartlex Team10 min read

An indie musician's hands at a night home-studio desk beside a Dolby Atmos audio interface, frayed-cable headphones, a printed invoice with a coffee-ring stain, a notebook and calculator under warm lamp and cool monitor light.

Apple Music Spatial Audio Royalties: The 2026 Atmos Playbook

Daniel Brooks11 min read

An indie musician's home studio desk at dusk: open laptop, worn studio headphones on a coiled cable, a coffee-stained TV storyboard printout, a MIDI keyboard, and a paper licensing contract with a pen across it.

Best Sync Licensing Service for Indie Artists in 2026

Daniel Brooks11 min read

A musician's lamp-lit night desk with a curled paper royalty statement, a worn calculator, loose coins and receipts, studio headphones and a coffee-ringed mug on weathered oak.

Streaming Royalty Rates Comparison 2026: Every Platform

Daniel Brooks17 min read

Editorial overhead shot of a vintage accountant's ledger with a magnifying glass over a column of payout figures, soft tungsten desk lamp light, muted teal and amber palette

Deezer Just Demonetized 85% of AI Streams: What Indie Payouts Look Like Now

Daniel Brooks11 min read

Independent songwriter at a desk reviewing a Mechanical Licensing Collective royalty statement on a laptop, with sheet music and a coffee cup beside the keyboard.

How to Claim Your Share of the MLC's $424M Black Box Pool (2026 Walkthrough)

Daniel Brooks12 min read

SoundCloud Artist Pro dashboard on a laptop showing royalty payouts at 100 percent next to a stack of streaming platform logos including Spotify, Apple Music, and TikTok.

SoundCloud Now Pays 100% on Distribution: Is Artist Pro Worth Switching For? (2026)

Daniel Brooks12 min read

Editorial illustration of a TikTok-native artist viewing a SoundOn royalty dashboard split between ByteDance platforms and third-party DSPs, with a payout curve dropping from 100 percent to 90 percent at the year-one mark.

TikTok's SoundOn 2026 Payout Overhaul: New Royalty Math for TikTok-Native Artists

Daniel Brooks10 min read

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