Question 1

What is ShineX?

Accepted Answer

ShineX lets you monitor your songs in rotation on SiriusXM and track the royalties associated with those spins.

ShineX is a service for artists, artist managers, labels, radio trackers, and any other music industry professional. ShineX is the most powerful and reliable platform on the market for accessing data about your spins on SiriusXM.

Presented as a dashboard, this privileged information lets you estimate your future revenue with precision and make better business decisions.

Question 2

How does ShineX work?

Accepted Answer

ShineX automatically indexes your songs as soon as they play on SiriusXM and instantly adds them to your dashboard.

Proven processes and innovative technologies have been put in place to achieve an unprecedented level of accuracy and information reliability.

Question 3

What is SoundExchange?

Accepted Answer

SoundExchange is a non-profit organization that collects and distributes digital royalties owed to Featured Artists and Rights Owners of musical works. The law requires service providers such as Pandora, SiriusXM, and webcasters to pay digital royalties for broadcasting music content.

To facilitate this process, service providers pay royalties to an intermediary, which acts as the link between you or your authorized representative.

In the United States, SoundExchange is the only organization designated by the U.S. Congress to manage the collection and distribution of digital royalties from SiriusXM.

ShineX estimates your royalties in accordance with SoundExchange's methods. It is therefore ideal to be represented by this organization to optimize your use of ShineX.

If you are a member of SOPROQ or CONNECT (producer) or ARTISTI, MROC, or ACTRA RACS (performer) worldwide, your SoundExchange royalties will be sent to these collective management organizations — you don't need to register with SoundExchange directly.

SoundExchange currently manages more than 199,000 performer and rights owner accounts and has distributed over $5 billion since its inception.

Question 4

Understanding royalties with SoundExchange

Accepted Answer

When SoundExchange receives payments from service providers such as SiriusXM, it calculates royalties based on the number of spins of each song, then pays the Featured Artists and Rights Owners of those recordings.

By law, 45% of royalties go to the Featured Artists on a recording, and 5% to a fund for Non-Featured Artists. The remaining 50% goes to the Rights Owner of the sound recording.

The 5% for Non-Featured Artists is not administered by SoundExchange. SoundExchange receives the royalties and distributes them to the AFM & SAG-AFTRA Fund.

ShineX does not track distributions to Non-Featured Artists.

"Featured Artist" refers to the group or individual most prominently featured on a sound recording, track, or album.

"Rights Owner" refers to the company, group, or individual who owns the master recordings of the artistic content.

Question 5

How are your royalties estimated?

Accepted Answer

ShineX updates the per-spin royalty rate established by SoundExchange every month.

Royalties from SiriusXM are paid to the Featured Artist and the Rights Owner at rates set by SoundExchange. To estimate your royalties on each song, ShineX uses the following formula:

Your number of spins × (your Featured Artist % × Featured Artist rate) + (your Rights Owner % × Rights Owner rate)

For example: Your song played 50 times on SiriusXM channel 163 in a given month. You are the Featured Artist (claiming 100%) and one of two co-producers (claiming 50% of Rights Owner royalties).

If the Featured Artist rate is $21.60 and the Rights Owner rate is $26.52:
50 spins × (100% × $21.60 + 50% × $26.52) = $1,743 USD

ShineX also adapts to your situation — you can modify your Featured Artist and Rights Owner percentages in your dashboard and the calculation updates instantly.

Important: Royalty estimates are provided for general informational purposes only. ShineX does not guarantee the accuracy of estimates. ShineX does not collect royalties — artists and rights owners must register with SoundExchange or another rights management organization.

Question 6

How to register to receive your royalties?

Accepted Answer

ShineX helps you monitor your spins on SiriusXM. ShineX does not handle royalty collection and distribution.

If you are a Featured Artist or Rights Owner, you must register with a rights management organization to collect the amounts owed to you.

We strongly recommend using SoundExchange to collect your royalties from SiriusXM in the United States. Registration with SoundExchange is free, easy, and fast.

Question 7

When will I receive my royalties?

Accepted Answer

If SoundExchange distributes your royalties, here's an overview of the distribution schedule:

Quarterly payment (by check):
By default, SoundExchange pays quarterly. You receive a payment every quarter for the previous quarter's spins.
• Jan/Feb/Mar spins → Paid end of June
• Apr/May/Jun spins → Paid end of September
• Jul/Aug/Sep spins → Paid end of December
• Oct/Nov/Dec spins → Paid end of March

Monthly payment (by direct deposit):
You can switch to monthly payments by filling out SoundExchange's Direct Deposit form. Once processed, your payments will be made automatically every month.
• January spins → Paid end of April
• February spins → Paid end of May
• March spins → Paid end of June
And so on — each month's spins are paid 3 months later.

These schedules apply to SoundExchange only.

Question 8

How does the ranking work?

Accepted Answer

The ranking lets you see your position relative to all artists in rotation on the channels where you're playing. It's easy to track your growth and compare yourself to your peers.

Additionally, the ranking lets you search for any artist in rotation on the channels of your choice and view their ranking.

Question 9

How to use the full potential of ShineX?

Accepted Answer

For independent / self-produced artists:
• Forecast your future revenue — ShineX bridges the 3-to-6-month gap between your spins and your royalty payments.
• Validate your repertoire — make sure every song generating royalties is properly registered.
• Identify top performers — see which songs are working and which need attention.

For producers and labels:
• Analyze the performance of your catalog and your artists — track fluctuations, identify growth or slowdowns, and react quickly.
• Forecast your cash flow — use the royalty estimation feature to build reliable budget forecasts.

For radio trackers:
• Be first on the news — get real-time alerts when a song you're tracking starts playing on SiriusXM.

Question 10

Important notices

Accepted Answer

Royalty estimates by ShineX are provided for general informational purposes only and should be considered as such. ShineX does not guarantee the accuracy of estimates.

ShineX does not collect royalties for Featured Artists or Rights Owners. To receive your royalties from SiriusXM, you must register with SoundExchange or another rights management organization.

ShineX is not affiliated with SiriusXM or SoundExchange.

Question 11

Verifying SoundExchange statements

Accepted Answer

If you're registered with SoundExchange, every time a distribution is paid, SoundExchange provides an explanatory statement in your SoundExchange Direct online portal.

Under "Earnings by License Type," you'll find a list of common items:
• SDARS — Your royalties from SiriusXM
• Webcasting — Royalties from web radio plays
• Admin True Up — Management fee adjustments by SoundExchange
• BES — Royalties from plays in physical establishments

ShineX presents information associated with the SDARS license type.

For deeper analysis, SoundExchange lets you export all information in CSV format.

Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions