When you sell a digital download on Subvert, 10% (percentage to be confirmed) of the gross sale price is planned to be withheld as a Rights Reserve before the remainder is credited to your account.
Why it exists When someone downloads a song, it triggers a mechanical royalty obligation - a payment owed to the songwriter or publisher for the right to reproduce and distribute the composition. Most platforms ignore this responsibility and leave it entirely on the artist. As a co-op, we think that's not good enough. The Rights Reserve is how Subvert takes an active role in helping ensure these obligations are met, rather than passing the burden entirely to you.
What happens to the money What happens to your Rights Reserve depends on whether you've declared a publisher:
- No publisher declared - if you self-administer your publishing rights, the Rights Reserve is released back to you around the time of sale. In practice, most independent artists on Subvert will see this money returned to them.
- Publisher declared - if you've declared a music publisher, the Rights Reserve is held and will be remitted to your publisher or the relevant licensing organization. The infrastructure to automate this remittance is currently in development - we'll update members when it's operational.
How to check and update your declaration You declare your publisher status during the upload process under Album Details. You can update your declaration at any time through your release editor. Changes apply to Rights Reserve funds accumulated from the date of the update forward.
Free downloads The Rights Reserve does not apply to free downloads - only to paid sales.
Refunds If a purchase is refunded, the Rights Reserve amount associated with that transaction is returned to your account balance. Subvert does not keep the Rights Reserve on refunded transactions.
The full Rights Reserve policy is in our Payment Policy at subvert.fm/payment-policy