Royalty Fair: the future belongs to creators

In 2020 I posted my first guitar melody on a platform known to beatmakers. My work caught on, and I started lining up sessions in Belgium, mainly in Brussels.

In one of those sessions I find a riff on the guitar. The team I was working with at the time gets in immediately, we start a production together. I lay down the guitar, several layers. A few days later they hand me a paper: one hundred fifty euros to assign all my rights on the song. Full assignment. I took my time. I did not sign.

What does royalty free actually mean?

You pay a modest subscription, you download as many melodies as you want, and you owe nothing on the back end. On paper it sounds convenient. In reality, it is the poisoned apple of our era.

We accepted this model because it looked easy — free after subscription, nothing to sign. By doing that, we shot ourselves in the foot. We accepted to lower the value of our own music. We agreed to compete with whoever was willing to undercut, just so a beat would get used. When everyone undercuts, no one gets paid what they are worth. That is the poison.

The model is broken

First damage: a Belgian producer told me this morning about a melody he pulled from one of those libraries, his singer wrote to it. Six months later Burna Boy released a record with the same melody. When his singer wanted to put out their original version, nobody knew anymore who owned what. The producer could not even release his own track.

Second damage: Pharrell Williams is announcing he is selling his masters. Pharrell. When a system can convince Pharrell to give up his masters, this is no longer a beginner's problem. It is a system that takes from everyone — from the seventeen-year-old to the legend. That is what I am breaking.

Royalty Fair is three clear things

Water was built on this premise. The first Royalty Fair platform on earth. Powered by GRAUX, 3.21 billion streams, global placements.

1. Always credited, from the first use. Your name is attached to your work the first time anyone uses it. Wherever the sound ends up, however many hands it passes through. The day the track explodes, your contribution is already documented. No need to chase paper trails two years later.

2. Publishing share when it takes off. Publishing is the money that goes to the composition — the melody, the lyrics. Above one million streams, or on a major placement (a signed major artist, established, with a track record), we share publishing with the artist's team.

3. Master share when your recording is used. The master is the money that goes to the recording — the audio that plays on the platforms. If what you laid down in the studio ends up in the final version, you get a piece of the master. Standard around 4% on a major artist, higher on a smaller artist. You started the song, you are part of the song. It is logical.

Beyond the three points: we support creators while they are still building. No contractual pressure while they gain momentum — we sign when the thing takes off, not before. And for beatmakers who use your ideas to push your name into a placement, they keep 100% of their own sales. We are after legacy. Not their hustle.

“We credit from the first use. We sign when it takes off.”

If there is one thing to remember

• Always ask for your credit.
• Always take a publishing share when you are part of the sound.
• Take a master share when your recording is used.
• Play the long game. Not the small check.

That is how you build legacy. Not someone else's catalog.

Why Water, and not someone else?

Royalty Fair is not a word you copy-paste. It comes from someone who lived every side of the table: the Brussels bedroom studio with nothing, the negotiations against six in-house Universal lawyers, the global placements with Booba, Burna Boy, Don Toliver, Maes, Ricky Martin. 3.21 billion streams. Three Grammy nominations.

Nobody else could have built this — because nobody else has lived it. That is why Water exists now, and not ten years from now.

If we unite, we win

Every creator together — that is how we flip the industry. Share this article. The more of us, the faster the model shifts.

To join me on Water: water.95ent.ai/sebastiengrrr

-Sébastien