Fan-powered Royalties (FPR) are a more equitable way for independent artists to get paid. Instead of your fans' money going into a giant "pool" shared by mega-stars, FPR ensures that your earnings are driven directly by your fans' actual listening habits.
How Fan-powered Royalties Work
In the traditional "pro-rata" model, revenue is pooled and paid out based on total stream market share. FPR changes the game by making it personal.
Your earnings are calculated based on:
Listening Time: How much of a fan’s total monthly listening was dedicated to your music.
Ads & Subscriptions: The number of ads that a fan viewed or whether they have a SoundCloud Go+ subscription.
Revenue Share: SoundCloud’s share of advertising and subscription revenue.
The result: If a fan spends 100% of their time listening to you, their subscription or ad revenue goes to you—not the top 1% of global artists.
How to Qualify
Any artist monetizing their music through SoundCloud for Artists automatically participates in Fan-powered Royalties.
Subscriptions: Both Artist and Artist Pro plans grant access to the SoundCloud for Artists dashboard.
Monetization: There are no "minimum stream" requirements to begin earning FPR. Once your tracks are monetized on SoundCloud, you’re in.
FPR vs. External Distribution
It is important to note that Fan-powered Royalties only apply to plays on SoundCloud.
External Platforms: Platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music use their own royalty models (typically the traditional pooled model).
Our Commitment: While we don't control external models, we pay out 100% of the royalties these partners send to us, minus a small payout processing fee.
How FPR Fights Fraud
Traditional pooled models are vulnerable to "streaming fraud"—where bots play tracks on a loop to siphon money from the total pool.
Under Fan-powered Royalties, bots have significantly less influence. Because royalties are tied to the actual contribution of a specific listener (subscription fee or ad views), a bot "looping" a track doesn't create "new" money from a shared pool. This ensures that more revenue stays in the hands of legitimate artists with real human fanbases.
Ready to start earning? Head to the Monetization tab in your SoundCloud for Artists dashboard to set up monetization for your tracks.