Revenue
Payout lanes, royalties, and direct fan money.
4 new ways your music pays in 2026Four revenue lanes opened for independent artists in one month: paid fan remixes on Spotify through the Merlin deal, TikTok LIVE gifts on original songs, SoundCloud's hand-picked The Upload, and YouTube fan funding that stays at 500 subscribers while ad thresholds double in 2027.
SoundCloud's The Upload picks emerging tracks with no follower minimumSoundCloud launched The Upload on 3 August 2026: a weekly human-curated discovery playlist with editorial commentary and no follower requirement, positioned as an answer to algorithmic fatigue.