Why Are There Unmonetized Streams in My Royalty Statement?
DSPs do not monetize 100% of the streams/videos that use your music. This can happen for a number of reasons.
Common causes of unmonetized streams
- Streaming during a trial period.Some DSPs like Deezer don't pay royalties when a track is streamed by a user who is still in their free trial period.
- Tracks streamed without any ads. Some subscription DSPs also offer a free tier which they monetize through advertising. But if no advertising was shown on a particular stream/video, then no royalties will be generated (for example, not every YouTube video view has an associated ad).
- Royalties are paid for content creation, not views. Some DSPs like TikTok do not pay based on the number of views of videos with your music — they instead pay based on the number of videos created with your music.
What this means for your statement
If you see unmonetized streams on your statement, it doesn't mean there's an error — it means the DSP didn't generate revenue for that particular stream due to one of the reasons above. The stream is still tracked for your records, but no payment is attached to it.
Spot a discrepancy?
If you believe there's an error in your statement beyond the normal causes above, contact our support team. We'll investigate with the relevant DSP.