As a songwriter you should have one (or more) royalty collection organisations collecting your royalties. I've been a member of the UK's Performing Rights Society (PRS) for decades. They also have reciprocal agreements with US agencies like BMI, NASCAM for international collections.
They claim...
• 160k Members
• 30m registered works
• £2.8m payments to their charities
• £677m payments to Rightsholders (people who own the copyright)
Here's my latest PRS distribution - £2.46
Where are they collecting my royalties from?
• I have 1400+ followers and millions of views on Soundcloud. It's tailed off recently but still 2000 plays a month. That's gotta be worth something, right?
• On YouTube I have 891 followers and 666,554 plays
• Spotify plays and followers is negligible
Due to the tangled web of collections I don't really know where my £2.46 came from, it doesn't seem much - 0.01 penny per play?
PRS used to send all members a cut so it may not even relate to my music!
It seems collection and reporting technology lags behind delivery technology!
OK, it's better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick but I still can't help feeling let down. I have asked PRS to comment so will return to this topic when they do.