FAQs

Black box royalties are payments that were earned from streams, sales, or performances — but couldn’t be matched to the right artist because of missing or incorrect data. After a set period, these funds are often redistributed to major labels or big rightsholders.

At Earned, our job is to make sure your money doesn’t vanish into the box.

If your music has ever been streamed, sold, or played live, chances are you’ve got royalties waiting.

Common signs: you’re seeing activity on Spotify/Apple but no publishing income, or your distributor pays you recording royalties but not publishing.

Earned helps you run a full audit to uncover what’s missing.

Yes.

Unregistered works are one of the main reasons royalties end up in the black box. Every song should be registered with your PRO/CMO and linked correctly with distributors and publishers. If you’ve already released music without doing this, don’t panic — Earned can still help recover what’s owed.

It depends on the rules in each country. In some cases, you can recover 3 years of royalties, in others 5–7 years, and in certain markets even longer.

Older catalogues may still hold hidden value — Earned checks every territory and timeframe possible.

Absolutely. In fact, independents lose the most to the black box because they often don’t have publishing teams chasing every penny. Earned is built to give indie artists the same reach and recovery muscle as the majors.

Yes.

Distributors mainly collect recording royalties. That’s only part of the picture. Songwriting and publishing royalties often go uncollected unless you’re registered properly. Earned closes the gaps distributors don’t cover.

Yes.

User-generated content (UGC) is one of the biggest sources of unclaimed royalties worldwide. If your track is used in videos and not properly tracked, that money heads straight for the black box. We help you claim it.

Unclaimed royalties don’t wait forever. After a few years (varies by territory), they’re pooled and handed to large rightsholders based on market share.

Translation: if you don’t claim your money, it probably goes to someone who doesn’t need it.

Recovery time depends on where the royalties are sitting. Some claims resolve in a few months, others can take over a year if multiple societies are involved. We give you updates at every stage so you know what’s happening behind the scenes.

PROs (like PRS, ASCAP, BMI) only collect what they’re directly linked to. Distributors pay out recording income only. Earned works across all platforms, PROs, and territories to connect the dots and recover what’s otherwise lost. We’re the artist’s missing link.