Calculator

See where your money goes.

Enter what you pay and how you listen. We will show you exactly what reaches each artist, and what the same listening earns elsewhere.

There has been no public first use of the app; Campfire's nonprofit services are already public. Built to show what a dollar does here versus a pro-rata platform. Methodology notes and worked examples are on the way.

Campfire Royalty Engine

User-centric subscription model how a listener's dollar becomes an artist's pay
MODEL  20% operations  /  80% rights-holders

Campfire takes 20% of net subscription revenue to run the platform. The other 80% is allocated user-centrically: each subscriber's dollars are split across the artists that subscriber actually listened to, in proportion to listening time. This tool shows the flow, the per-artist payout, and why the user-centric model pays a devoted independent fanbase more than a traditional pro-rata platform would.

01The subscriber's dollar
One subscriber, one month. Adjust the inputs and watch the split move.
$10.00
Defaults to $10 a month. Move the slider to model any price.
5.0%
Processing, app-store, and sales tax taken before the split.
20.0%
Fixed at 20% of net revenue. This is the model, not an adjustable input.
15%
Held from the 80% pool to cover statutory mechanical licensing through the MLC and PRO performance licenses. The 15% level is a planning benchmark for the reserve, not a royalty rate.
$0.00net $9.50
Fees & taxes
$0.50
5% of gross
Operations (20%)
$1.90
20% of net
Composition licensing
$1.14
from the 80% pool
To artists (master)
$6.46
allocated by listening
02What one artist earns
User-centric payout depends on engagement, not just reach. An artist is paid by their own fans, in proportion to how much of those fans' listening they hold. Build the fanbase from segments and watch the superfans carry the pay.
10,000
Log scale, 250 to 50M. Waitlist artists mostly sit in the 1K to 10K range.
Most fans listen a little; a few superfans send most of their subscription. The blend is the effective listenership that drives pay.
Casual
fanbase70%
listens4.0%
Regular
fanbase25%
listens12.0%
Superfan
fanbase5%
listens40.0%
Effective listenership (blended)7.8%
0.70x
Below 1.0 means this artist's fans are more selective than the platform average. Drives the pro-rata comparison only.
Annual artist payout
$729K
master share, after licensing reserve
Per month
$60.8K
12 monthly statements
Per fan / year
$72.9
value of one engaged listener
Share of total payout by fan segment
03User-centric vs. the pro-rata industry standard
Same artist, same fans. On a pro-rata platform an artist is paid by their share of all platform streams, so devoted-but-selective fanbases get diluted by heavy general listeners. Campfire pays the artist directly from their own fans.
Campfire
User-centric
$729K
Each fan's dollars go to the artists that fan listened to.
Pro-rata
Pooled model
$510K
The artist's cut of one big pool, set by their share of total platform streams. Illustrative, not a figure for any specific service.
04Annual rights-holder payout by reach and engagement
The 80% pool allocated across listener tiers and listenership rates. Highlighted row tracks the calculator above.
Monthly listeners1%5%10%Typical25%40%
Figures are the rights-holder allocation (the 80% pool), annual, before the composition-licensing reserve. The Typical column uses the calculator's current listenership share.
▸ Assumptions, sources, and open decisions

The split. 20% of net revenue to operations, 80% to rights-holders, allocated user-centrically by listening time. The 20% is fixed and is not adjustable in this tool.

Net revenue. The 20% is taken after payment processing, app-store fees, and sales tax, before royalties.

User-centric payout. Annual master payout = monthly listeners x net price x (1 - cut) x effective listenership x (1 - licensing reserve) x 12.

Open decision A, licensing reserve. A portion of the 80% pool is reserved for composition licensing. Mechanical royalties for interactive streaming are statutory: the rate is set by the Copyright Royalty Board and the blanket license is administered by the Mechanical Licensing Collective, so it is not something Campfire negotiates. Public performance is licensed separately through the PROs. The 15% default here sizes the reserve; it is a planning benchmark, not a rate.

Open decision B, fees. Blended 5% placeholder for processing, app-store, and tax. App-store fees vary widely between web checkout and in-app.

Pro-rata comparison. Illustrative and generic. It scales the user-centric payout by fan listening intensity relative to the platform average, and does not represent the payout of any named service.

Not yet modeled. Master vs. songwriter/publisher split for self-writing artists, artist-led add-on subscriptions, unmatched-works registration support, and minimum-guarantee mechanics.

Projections based on labeled assumptions, not commitments. Campfire is in closed testing; figures here are illustrative and are not an offer, a guarantee, or a representation of what any artist will earn. Not financial or legal advice.

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