Core
Free
For good. No card, no trial.
Follow, keep up, and hear each artist's free track.
For listeners Coming soon
Your money.Their music.
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.
- £10Of every £18, to artistsFixed, and taken out before anything else. On Champion it's £12 of £25.
- 1pPer stream, whoever you playThe same rate for every artist. No fractions of a penny, no deals. And every track is original, by the artist who made it.
- 0Of it kept if you don't listenWhatever's left of your allowance goes to the artists you choose, as patronage.
What you get
Three ways in.
Core is free for good. Patron and Champion open when listening does, and everyone on the waiting list hears first. Every stream pays the artist 1p, and what you don't play still reaches artists, as support.
| Feature | CoreFree | Patron£18 a month | Champion£25 a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Listening | |||
| Streams a month | One free track per artist, chosen by them | 1,000 | 1,200 |
| The full catalogue, on the web and in the app | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Top up with 500 more streams for £9 | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free live streams and hang-out rooms with artists (18 and over for now) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Your money, to artists | |||
| Every month, to artists, before anything else | — | £10 | £12 |
| Every stream pays the artist 1p | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| What you don't play is sent on as patronage, shared how you choose | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Support out loud, or quietly | — | — | ✓ |
| The artists you follow | |||
| Follow artists and see their diary, releases and gigs | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Message the artists you follow | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Back one artist alone and join their inner circle: posts, tracks before they’re out and hang-out rooms, 14 and over | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Buy merch and tickets | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Sharing and finding | |||
| Share your playlists: a link anyone can open, with your name on it | — | — | ✓ |
Your own fan page at subTotem.fans/yourname, 18 and over | — | — | ✓ |
| Write reviews and add up to 4 photos to albums, 18 and over | — | — | ✓ |
| Review copies: artists send you new releases, often before they’re out, to review | — | — | ✓ |
| Help shape what people find: your reviews show in Find artists, and you can ask for an artist’s next releases | — | — | ✓ |
Items marked Soon are on the way. Subscriptions, payments and account settings all live here on the web; the subTotem app is for listening, discovering and chatting.
The price
Every pound,
accounted for.
Patron and Champion come with a monthly stream allowance and a fixed amount for artists, taken out before anything else.
Patron
£18
A month.
£10 goes to artists, every month, whether you stream it or not.
Champion
£25
A month.
£12 goes to artists, the most any listener sends on subTotem, and your own fan page.
Patron or Champion?
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.
Where your £18 goes.
£10To artists, before anything else
£8Songwriter licensing, card fees, then subTotem
Your £10, however much you play.
Play 1,000 tracks
£10.00 in streams
Play 300 tracks
£3.00 in streams + £7.00 as support
Play 20 tracks
£0.20 in streams + £9.80 as support
Streams, 1p each, to whoever you played Support, shared out the way you choose
The £10 is fixed. It doesn't shrink in a quiet month and it isn't a share of what's left over. Listening less never means paying artists less.
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.
What you don't play, your call.
At the end of the month, whatever you didn't stream is shared out as direct support. You pick how.
Weighted by listening
Split across everyone you played, in proportion to how much you played them.
Equal across artists
Everyone you played gets exactly the same share.
Up to four favourites
Choose a handful of artists to back, every month.
One favourite
All of it goes to a single artist, and you're in their inner circle: the diary posts, tracks before they're out and hang-out rooms they keep for the ones who back them alone. 14 and over.
The price shown is the total you pay. The amount that goes to artists is fixed and comes out first, before songwriter licensing and card fees.
Join
Be there on
day one.
Listening opens once enough artists are on board, so there's plenty to hear from the start. Join the waiting list and we'll tell you the moment it does.
Good to know
The small print, in plain English.
The same £18, here and on the big streaming services
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.
The big streaming servicessubTotem
What one play pays
About 0.2p to 0.4p, shared with whoever else owns the recording.
1p, straight to the artist.
Where your money goes
Into one pot, split by total plays across the platform — so most of it follows the biggest artists, whoever you played.
To the artists you played, and nobody else.
Smaller artists
A track with under 1,000 plays a year can earn nothing at all.
Paid from the first play. No threshold, ever.
Months you barely listen
You pay the same. The artists you love get less.
The rest becomes patronage, shared how you choose.
Buying merch or tickets
Somewhere else entirely, usually at 10% to 15% commission.
On the artist's own page, at a flat 5%.
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.
What subTotem does with what it makes
subTotem Ltd is run as a reinvestment business. What the platform makes goes back into the music rather than out of it.
01
Artist grants
Direct funding for the people making the music — recording, gear and travel, the costs that usually come out of an artist's own pocket.
02
Funded gigs
Paying artists properly to play, and backing the grassroots venues and nights that give independent music somewhere to happen.
03
Label-style support
The muscle a label provides — promotion, distribution and release backing — offered as a service. You keep every one of your rights.
11 years+filming grassroots gigs and music videos before building this platform
1,400+independent artists worked with, face to face, at venues across the UK
1,700+music videos made for the grassroots scene subTotem is built to serve
When can I start listening?
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.
What happens when my streams run out?
Add 500 more for £9 whenever you want. There's no surprise charge — nothing is taken unless you ask for it.
Do unused streams roll over?
No. They go to artists instead, as patronage, in whatever way you've chosen. That's the point of them.
Is Core really free?
Yes, for good. Follow artists, keep up with them, and hear the track each one picks to share. No card, no trial.
Who decides which artists I support?
You do. Weighted by how much you listened, split evenly, up to four favourites, or all to one artist, which puts you in their inner circle. Change it whenever you like.
Can I cancel?
Any time, from your account on the web. You keep your plan until the end of the period you signed up for.