How Shareholder Splits Work in Velveteen
Updated June 11, 2026
Shareholder splits in Velveteen are percentages of master royalties for a track. All shares on a track must sum to 100% or less. When royalties are processed, each shareholder receives their percentage of the total amount earned by that track. Shares are stored as decimal numbers: any value greater than 0 and at most 100.
Split percentages are how Velveteen allocates master royalties across everyone who owns a piece of a track. The math is straightforward: when a track earns royalties in a reporting period, each shareholder receives their percentage of that total.
The sum-to-100 rule
Velveteen enforces a sum guard on every insert and update. Before adding a shareholder or changing a percentage, Velveteen totals all existing shares on the track. If the proposed change would push the total above 100%, the request is rejected. You must adjust existing shares first to make room.
Tip
How royalties reach shareholders
DSPs report streaming activity to Velveteen on their own schedule (typically monthly, with a reporting lag that varies by DSP and can run several months or more). When a royalty statement arrives for a track, Velveteen reads the shareholder table for that track and calculates each shareholder's portion. Shareholders with a linked Velveteen account (user_id is set) have their portion credited to that account's payout balance. For shareholders without a linked account, see your label's payout settings for how unresolved splits are handled.
Heads up
Fractional and uneven splits
Not all co-ownership arrangements divide evenly. Velveteen stores share as a NUMERIC column, which supports decimal values to any required precision. For a 50/30/20 split, enter 50, 30, and 20. For a 40/33.33/26.67 split, use those exact values. The sum guard uses a small tolerance (0.0001) to account for floating-point rounding.
Frequently asked questions
What happens if I try to add a share that would push the total over 100%?+
Velveteen blocks the addition and returns an error. The sum of all existing shares plus the new one must not exceed 100%. Adjust existing shares or remove a shareholder before adding a new one with a percentage that would push the total over.
Can shares be fractional, like 33.33%?+
Yes. Shares are stored as NUMERIC (decimal), so fractional values like 33.33 or 16.666 are supported. This matters for three-way splits where the percentages cannot be whole numbers.
Does the order of shareholders matter?+
No. Royalties are distributed by percentage, not by the order shareholders were added. All shareholders are paid from the same pool for a given processing period.
What if shares total less than 100%?+
Velveteen does not require shares to total 100%. Any unallocated percentage is not paid to any shareholder. If you intend for a single owner to receive all royalties, add them at 100%.
Can I set a share to 0%?+
No. The share field has a check constraint requiring share > 0. To remove a shareholder, delete their record rather than setting their share to zero.
Related articles
What is a shareholder?
An email address and a share percentage on a single track: the basics of the shareholder entity.
Locked shareholders
Shareholders lock when a track is attached to a submitted or live release. After that, edits require a change request.
How royalties work
Master vs. publishing royalties, shareholder splits, DSP reporting lag, and how payouts reach your account.