The calculators for
the harder decisions.
Eighteen more calculators, for the questions that decide real money: what your publishing is actually worth, whether an advance is a good one, what your catalogue would sell for, how you should be structured, and what the tax on all of it will be.
They are not for sale separately and they are not gated behind an email. They open at Stage 3 (Monetise) of The 5 Keys ladder and stay open from there up, and they are part of the 5 Keys with Paul from day one.
Eighteen tools, one key
Every one of these runs in your browser like the free eighteen, shows its working, and takes ten minutes. The difference is what they are about: not what you are earning now, but what the next decision is worth.
PUBLISHING
Mechanical and performance royalties, writer versus publisher share, PRO payouts and admin fees — the money that never shows up on a distributor dashboard.
Split my publishing →ADVANCE
An advance is a loan against your own royalties. See how many streams it takes to recoup, when you next get paid, and what the same release earns without it.
Test the offer →CHART
Convert streams, downloads and physical sales into album-equivalent units, and see what it realistically takes to reach a chart position.
Count my units →ADS
Turn ad spend into cost per follower, per listener, per email and per paying fan — then set it against what a fan is actually worth to you.
Cost my spend →CROWDFUND
Platform fees, payment processing, rewards, packing and postage all come out before you do. Work backwards from what you need to keep.
Set my goal →CATALOG
A valuation range on your recordings and songs, built from your last twelve months, your decay curve and the multiples this size of catalogue actually trades at.
Value my catalogue →DEAL
Put a label deal, a distribution deal and staying independent against the same release and the same numbers, over three years, and see which one pays you most.
Compare the offers →RATE
Work back from the income you need to the day rate that gets you there — after unbillable days, overheads, holiday, tax and the work you do for free.
Set my rate →BUDGET
Studio, engineer, players, mixing, mastering, artwork and contingency — costed per track and per record, before you commit to a single session.
Budget my record →PLAYLIST
Follower counts are not listeners. Work a placement through to real streams and real money — and see what your save rate says about whether it will last.
Value the placement →RUNWAY
Savings, irregular income and the months it has to cover. See how long you can keep going, and what has to change for the runway to stop shortening.
Check my runway →QUARTERLY
Four payments, four deadlines, and a safe-harbour rule that stops the penalty even when you guess low. Work out each cheque and the date it has to leave.
Work out my payments →WITHHOLD
Foreign royalties and overseas shows get taxed at source, wherever you are based. See what is being withheld, what a treaty rate would reduce it to, and what the paperwork is worth.
Check my withholding →STRUCTURE
At what income does an S-corp election start paying for itself? Self-employment tax saved, set against payroll, filings and the fees nobody mentions.
Compare structures →PENSION
SEP-IRA against solo 401(k): how much each lets you put away, what it saves you this year, and what it becomes by the time you stop touring.
Plan my pension →RECAPTURE
US law lets authors recapture assigned copyrights after 35 years — but only inside a narrow window, and only if notice is served years ahead. Find your dates.
Find my window →BAND
Not song splits — band splits. Who fronted what, who does the admin, what each member actually takes home, and what a leaving member is owed.
Split it fairly →INVESTOR
Someone offers to fund the record for a share of the revenue. Model both sides — when they are repaid, what they make, and what the money really costs you.
Price the investment →Where to start
Eighteen is a lot. These tend to matter in this order.
- Most artists can describe their streaming income and not one line of their publishing. It is roughly half the money a song generates, and it is the half that keeps paying.
- Run the offer before you run it past anyone else. An advance is not income — it is your own future royalties, paid early, minus everything the deal takes on the way.
- Put that offer beside the two alternatives on identical numbers. The comparison is usually more persuasive than any opinion about it.
- Tax on self-employed music income surprises people once, expensively. These two stop that happening twice.
- How you are set up, what you are putting away, and when your copyrights can come back to you. None of these are urgent until suddenly they are — and two of them have deadlines that cannot be extended.
These open at Stage 3.
The 5 Keys ladder climbs from Foundation to Sustain, one stage at a time, earned by results. Stage 3, Monetise, is where diversifying your income starts — and where these eighteen open. They are also part of the 5 Keys with Paul.
See the ladder