5.1 - How Royalties Work, From Stream to Bank Account

Every stream generates a royalty, but the path from that stream to money in your bank account passes through several stages, each with its own timing.

5.1.1 The two royalty types generated by a stream

As covered in 1.2.3, every stream generates two distinct royalty types: **recording royalties** (paid to whoever owns the sound recording — handled by Madverse's distribution service) and **publishing royalties** (paid to the composition's songwriter/owner, via publishers and collecting societies — outside the scope of this section, as Publishing is a separate Madverse service).

5.1.2 The full pipeline

1. Stream occurs. The DSP logs the play. No payment happens yet.
2. DSP closes monthly accounting and pays Madverse as distributor.
3. Madverse Statements show that money about 4 months after the streams (January streams typically appear around May). This is reporting lag, not Madverse holding funds.
4. Madverse credits your wallet at 100% while your subscription is active (50% if it has lapsed), after FX conversion and TDS for Indian residents.
5. You cash out from Finance → Transactions once Available to Cash Out meets the minimum (₹2,000 India / $50 international). Transfers typically take about 7 working days.

Source: MadDesk article 5.1 (5-1)