How It Works

Playstice is built differently from the streaming platforms you know. Here's a clear breakdown of how everything works — for listeners and artists alike.

For Listeners

1. Sign Up & Subscribe

Create a free account to browse the catalog and listen to 30-second previews. Subscribe for $9.99/month to unlock full-length, lossless streaming across the entire catalog.

2. Stream in Lossless Quality

Every track is available in three quality tiers: FLAC lossless (CD quality), AAC 256kbps (high quality), and AAC 128kbps (data saver). You choose your tier in the player — lossless is always available, no upsell required.

3. Your Money Goes to Your Artists

This is the big one. On most platforms, your $9.99 goes into a giant pool and gets split based on total global streams. The top 1% of artists take most of the money, regardless of what you listen to.

4. Your Dashboard

Track your listening habits: total time, top artists, recently played, and see exactly how your subscription was distributed. You can see the direct impact your listening has on the artists you love.

5. Direct Tips

Want to go further? Send a direct tip ($1, $3, $5, or custom) to any artist. 90% goes straight to them.

For Artists

1. Get Verified

Playstice is a curated platform. Apply to join, complete our authenticity verification, and start uploading your music. We verify that every artist is real and every track is human-made.

2. Upload Your Music

Upload your tracks in lossless format (FLAC, WAV, AIFF, or ALAC). We handle the transcoding into three streaming tiers automatically. Add your metadata, artwork, and genre tags.

3. Earn Fair Royalties

The revenue split is 70/30 — 70% to artists, 30% platform fee. Unlike pro-rata models where your streams compete against billions of plays from mega-artists, our user-centric model means every dedicated listener directly translates to meaningful income.

4. See Everything

Your artist dashboard shows real-time data: total streams, listening time, unique listeners, per-track performance, daily trends, and detailed royalty reports. We also show a comparison with estimated Spotify payouts so you can see the difference.

5. Get Paid

Royalties are calculated monthly and paid via Stripe Connect within 30 days. Minimum payout threshold: $10. You can see your pending earnings at any time in the dashboard.

The Math

Here's a concrete example of how user-centric royalties work:

Scenario

A subscriber listens to 30 hours of music in March: 18 hours to Artist A, 9 hours to Artist B, and 3 hours to Artist C.

Calculation

Subscriber's monthly payment: $9.99. Artist pool (70%): $6.99.

• Artist A: 60% of listening time → receives $4.19
• Artist B: 30% of listening time → receives $2.10
• Artist C: 10% of listening time → receives $0.70

Compare this to pro-rata, where all three artists would receive fractions of a cent per stream from a shared global pool — regardless of how much this specific listener enjoyed their music.

Our Non-Exclusive Approach

We don't require exclusivity. Keep your music on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, or anywhere else. Playstice is an additional revenue stream — one designed to pay you more fairly.

Ready?

Create your account and start discovering music that's verified authentic, sounds incredible, and actually pays the people who made it.