For listeners
subTotem is where you pay the independent artists you love. £10 of every £18 is theirs before anything else — paid as you listen, and sent on as support for whatever you don't play.
We're bringing artists on board first, so there's plenty to hear on day one. Join the waiting list and we'll tell you the moment it opens.
How it works
Core is free. Patron and Champion come with a monthly stream allowance and a fixed amount committed to artists before anything else.
Every stream pays that artist 1p — a real rate, not a rounding error. Listen on the web or in the subTotem app.
Didn't use the whole allowance? It doesn't stay with us. It goes to the artists you choose, as direct patronage, and you decide how it's shared.
Where the money goes
Most platforms hide the split. Here it is, for an £18 Patron subscription. The artists' share comes first, and it's the biggest part.
The £10 is fixed. It doesn't shrink in a quiet month and it isn't a share of what's left over. It comes out first, whether you play 20 tracks or a thousand.
Songwriters get paid too. A set share of every subscription goes to collective licensing, so the people who wrote the songs are covered as well as the people who recorded them.
What's left is the platform's share, and it pays to run subTotem. Anything beyond that is reinvested — artist grants, funded gigs and label-style support.
On Champion, £12 of £25 goes to artists, and the extra pays for your own fan page.
Your unused streams
At the end of the month, whatever you didn't stream is shared out as direct support. You pick how.
Split across everyone you played, in proportion to how much you played them.
Everyone you played gets exactly the same share.
Choose a handful of artists to back, every month.
All of it goes to a single artist.
Why here
You probably already pay for a streaming service, and you should keep it — subTotem isn't trying to replace your library. It's for the artists you'd hate to see give up.
Per-stream figures are the reported industry range for payments to rights holders, before any label or distributor share. subTotem's 1p is paid straight to the artist — never to a label or a distributor — so nobody takes a cut of it.
Plans at launch
Core is free for good. Patron and Champion open when listening does — everyone on the waiting list hears first. Items marked Soon are on the way.
Freefor good
Follow the artists you care about and keep up with what they're doing.
Join the waiting listWhat's included
£18a month
£10 goes to artists — every month, whether you stream it or not.
The full catalogue, and a real amount of money reaching the people who made it.
Join the waiting listEverything in Core, plus
£25a month
Help artists get found.
£12 goes to artists — the most any listener sends on subTotem.
Your taste becomes part of how people find music here: playlists you share, your own fan page, and a say in what's recommended.
Join the waiting listEverything in Patron, plus
subtotem.fans/yourname SoonThe price shown is the total you pay. The amount that goes to artists is fixed and comes out first, before tax, songwriter licensing and card fees. Subscriptions, payments and account settings all live here on the web — the subTotem app is for listening, discovering and chatting.
For £7 more a month, Champion makes you part of how music gets found on subTotem — playlists you can share with anyone, your own fan page, reviews, and a say in what's recommended.
On top of that, £2 more of your money reaches artists every month, and you get 200 more streams.
Add 500 more for £9, any time. Unused top-up streams work like the rest: whatever you don't play still goes to artists as support.
Most people won't get near the cap. The average listener plays about 990 tracks a month across everything they listen to — and subTotem sits alongside the big services rather than replacing them. If you play 300 tracks here, the other 700 streams' worth of your £10 still reaches artists, as patronage to the ones you choose.
That's the part worth knowing: on subTotem, listening less never means paying artists less.
Why we exist
subTotem Ltd is run as a reinvestment business. What the platform makes goes back into the music rather than out of it.
Direct funding for the people making the music — recording, gear and travel, the costs that usually come out of an artist's own pocket.
Paying artists properly to play, and backing the grassroots venues and nights that give independent music somewhere to happen.
The muscle a label provides — promotion, distribution and release backing — offered as a service. You keep every one of your rights.
Good to know
Once enough artists are on board. We'd rather you arrived to a full catalogue than an empty one. Everyone on the waiting list is told first.
Add 500 more for £9 whenever you want. There's no surprise charge — nothing is taken unless you ask for it.
No. They go to artists instead, as patronage, in whatever way you've chosen. That's the point of them.
Yes, for good. Follow artists, keep up with them, and hear the track each one picks to share. No card, no trial.
You do. Weighted by how much you listened, split evenly, up to four favourites, or all to one artist. Change it whenever you like.
Any time, from your account on the web. You keep your plan until the end of the month you've paid for.
Be there on day one.
Join the waiting list