With each statement in your portal, there are up to six files you can download. In this chapter we will go through each of those, how you can read them, and how they may be useful to you. Not all statement types may be available in your portal, as they may be hidden when not deemed relevant to you.
PDF Statement
This document provides a breakdown of the income & costs that contribute to the respective royalty period. Income is categorised by Channel & Configuration. If you're paid by a label or distributor you might also see Costs on your statement - these are sub-totalled by type. The Net Amount is the total of all the income minus all costs included in royalty period.
When a Closing Balance is present, this will specify the total royalty due to you for payment. It is compiled of your earnings (Income minus Costs) this period, your Opening Balance plus any Advances or Payments made during this period.
When a Closing Balance is not specified, we refer to your Statement Of Account which will specify this data instead.
Statement Of Account
This is a record of any transactions on your account during the period. It details your Opening Balance, any advances paid, reserves withheld or released, tax deductions or any balance interactions with other contracts. The end result is a Closing Balance which specifies the total royalty amount due to you.
When it comes to payment, each record label, distributor or publisher using Curve may operate different policies. They may require you to provide an invoice, or they may automatically make payment once a minimum threshold is met. Notes in the PDF or Statement Of Account may provide further instructions or a help email address. If anything is still unclear, please contact your label, distributor or publisher directly.
Self-Bill Invoice
When a Self-Bill invoice is downloadable, it means your Label, Distributor or Publisher has risen an invoice on your behalf. It may be a useful document for tax reasons for both parties involved.
Self-Fee Invoice
A Self-Fee invoice may be risen by a distributor or administrator. In this instance, they invoice you for the commission they are taking. This invoice does not need to be paid by you, your distributor or administrator will automatically deduct this amount from your royalty payment. It may be a useful document for tax reasons for both parties involved.
All Sales CSV
If you’d like to look under the hood of your royalty statement, you can download the All Sales CSV. This is a CSV that contains every sales line that makes up your your royalty statement. The file can be opened in Microsoft Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets. The following are some key columns in the data:
Sale Date – When the customer transaction occurred
Source / Sub Source – These columns describe the platform & the commissioner of the revenue
Territory – The country of sale
Track Title / Release Title / Work Title – The particular track, album or work to which the transaction relates
Configuration – The format of the sale
Units – The number of sales, plays, performances
Net Amount – The total revenue that your record label or distributor received for the transaction. So this is the total before your participation rate is taken into account. If you only have one track or one feature on a release, or don't have a full writer's share on a work, this amount is still the total revenue for the complete album or compilation showing up here.
Calculation Type – This describes the base used to calculate your royalties – Net Receipts, Gross Receipts, PPD, Unit Rate or Unit Price
Calculation Input – This is the base value used to calculate your royalties
Participation Rate – Your percentage share on the track, release or work. For example, 100 would mean you are the sole beneficiary for this sales revenue, 50 would mean you split the share equally with another participant
Mechanical Deduction – Any deductions for mechanicals are recorded here. This would be the absolute amount. Mechanicals are a fee set aside to remunerate songwriters
Deduction – If your label or publisher has deducted part of your royalty, this would show up here. This would be the absolute amount
Royalty Rate – This is the percentage of the revenue to be shared with you as your royalty
Reduction – If there are royalty reductions in your contract, a reduction rate can show up here. A value of 90 would mean you receive 90% of the royalty
Net Payable – After taking into account all the previous input & rates, this is the Net Payable to you for each line. The total of this column will be the same as the total income on your PDF statement
Reserve – A reserve is a term typically used for physical sales. When a physical copy is sold, a record label may hold part of the due royalty as an insurance against any unsold units that might be returned by retailers. This reserve should then be released in a future royalty period.
All Costs CSV
Similar to the All Sales CSV, the All Costs CSV gives a breakdown of the Costs included in your statement in a CSV format. These are the noteworthy columns:
Type – Category the cost falls under
Name – A name given to the cost by your record label
Description – A description given to the cost by your record label
Gross Amount – The total cost
Net Amount – The part of the cost that is deducted from your balance
