The map
A single fix on its own tends to stall: a chart with nothing to read on each entry, a stage with no shared money behind it. So the eight layers arrive together, as one interlocking machine, because each one feeds the others. This page is the map of how.
The eight layers
How a work was made, recorded once by the maker, readable everywhere.
Layer 02A chart where listeners vote, with the counting method published.
Layer 03Recognition for the craft as it happens now, in every band of making.
Layer 04Plain-language answers about music and the law, with the exact rules quoted.
Layer 05Small operators negotiating together with big platforms.
Layer 06The fine print of every distributor (the service that puts your song on the streaming platforms), side by side, with sources linked.
Layer 07Live formats, billing that says what each act is, and fair-fee ticketing.
Layer 08Shared channels and shared revenue, with the split rules published.
The connections
Follow the wires. Purple wires carry information; gold wires carry money back to the maker.
Governance
Every member holds the same single vote: artist, listener, venue or toolmaker. No weighting by revenue, follower count or catalogue size.
Any change to the rules is drafted, published for members to read, then put to a member vote. The draft always comes before the ballot, so nobody votes blind.
The chart method, the mark fields and the split rules live on GitHub (a public website that keeps every past version of a document and shows exactly what changed, and when). Anyone can read the current rules and every rule that came before them.
Where a decision is disputed, the evidence considered and the outcome reached are both published. The reasoning travels with the result.
When it incorporates, the ecosystem will run on two legal shapes, one for each side of the machine. taking shape
A company limited by guarantee: the usual legal form for national member bodies. It will carry the mark, the chart, the awards, the rights engine and the two tables.
A co-operative: a business owned by the members it pays, where the surplus flows back to them rather than to outside shareholders. It will carry the pool and the shared channels.
The fleet
Each layer will grow into its own site and tool over time: the chart gets its voting floor, the terms table gets its comparison engine, the rights engine gets its question box. This site is the map they all link back to, so a person can always see the whole machine from any one part of it. taking shape
Choose your door
The map shows the machine. The paths show what it does for you, one step at a time.