The Great Royalty Shake-Up: What Every Artist Should Know
Created with DALL-E 2025
The Great Royalty Shake-Up: What Every Artist Should Know
The music industry is full of surprises. And not always the good kind.
A new lawsuit has surfaced, shining a light on something we’ve been talking about for years: missing royalties. Big numbers. Big labels. And a whole lot of missing money.
This case isn’t unique. It’s just the latest in a long line of artists discovering that their streaming revenue isn’t quite adding up. Fees deducted for outdated services. Overseas earnings mysteriously shrinking. Contracts written before digital even existed. The list goes on.
This is just the tip of the iceberg.
How many more artists are unknowingly leaving money on the table? How many are trusting that their statements are correct when they might not be?
The numbers tell a staggering story. If one lawsuit claims $5 million in missing royalties, how many millions - or billions - are still unclaimed across the entire industry? Recent estimates suggest that artists with 2 billion streams often report earnings of just $10 million. That means every 100 million streams generate only $500,000 - a figure that might still be far lower than it should be. If this pattern holds across thousands of artists, the cumulative industry-wide damage could easily exceed billions of dollars in unpaid royalties.
Tech meets transparency.
At Fira Music, we know the game has changed. Traditional audits? They only scratch the surface. Our proprietary Rev-Shaker software goes deeper - finding hidden revenue streams that normal audits miss. It’s the edge that every artist deserves in a world where every stream counts.
This lawsuit raises a bigger question: How many artists will start looking closer at their own royalties? And how much more is out there waiting to be claimed?
The impact of these revelations could be massive. Labels, which have long controlled the flow of music revenue, may soon face a reckoning. If more artists start digging, if more lawsuits emerge, the entire industry could be forced to rewrite the rules on transparency, payments, and artist compensation. The old ways of hiding fees and deductions may soon crumble under the weight of modern scrutiny.
If you’re an artist, now is the time to shake things up. Because in the music business, knowledge isn’t just power - it’s profit.
