How a play on the air becomes money in your wallet.
The trail from a broadcast — on radio, on television, on any connected medium — to a payout, explained without the technical internals, because the trail is what matters. In the first rollout markets, the default rail is mobile money; other markets use their local equivalent.
The question most artists ask, the first time they encounter the platform, is the one in the headline. The answer is shorter than the history of this industry would suggest.
The trail, in order
- The song is registered in the DNA Registry and the artist profile is claimed. Without this, nothing downstream happens.
- The song airs — on a radio station, a television channel, or any broadcast source connected to the platform. The play is captured and matched at the moment it happens.
- The match is written into a permanent, signed record. No party to the broadcast can alter it after the fact.
- At the close of the statement period, the registered broadcasts are reconciled against the rate for that station and that period.
- The resulting amount lands in the artist's GlueArrow Wallet — sitting there, or disbursed to a linked mobile-money account (MoMo, in Ghana) or bank account, at the artist's choice.
What each step is not
The match is not a guess. It is a signed record. The rate is not negotiated per song; it is set for the station and the period, and the same rate applies to every registered work on that station. The disbursement is not delayed by a month of paperwork; it is automatic at the close of the statement period.
Why mobile money
Mobile money is the default payout rail in the first rollout market, Ghana, where the specific service is MoMo and it is what most artists already hold. The platform meets the artist where the artist already banks. In markets where the default rail differs, the default follows the market. For artists who prefer a different rail — a Wallet balance, a direct bank transfer, or a conversion to another currency — those options are available in the Wallet settings, and none of them are forced on anyone.
The amounts
Early statements will be small. The first stations on the network reach real audiences, but a single play on a single station is a single play. Amounts grow with registered catalogue depth, with station count, and with time.
The value of a statement is not in any one line. It is in the line every previous generation of artists in these markets never had: the written record, addressed to them, of what their work earned.
“The value of a statement is not in any one line. It is in the line every previous generation of artists in these markets never had.”