I have a mix of three playback modes – Tidal through Roon, Tidal at home (online), and Tidal remote (downloaded and offline). The Tidal stats are odd at best, I am talking about Tidal not Roon.
I actually like the Artist royalty payment, i think it brings awareness to the issue of artist payment to the front even if it does not solve the problem.
The Artist paid out is only on the Tidal mobile app, there is a little icon in the bottom shelf. Then in the desktop app and other places, it keeps a playlist of most listened to for each month. Comparing the two, for me, they have nothing to do with each other.
October payout artist is Madonna, i have one song of hers on a mix playlist. Madonna does not show on the October most played playlist from Tidal.
Sept is Thelonious Monk (cool), none of his songs on the Sept playlist. In fact, none of my jazz playbacks are on the monthly most listened too, and those come mostly through Roon. I have listened to some Monk but surprised it would be my most listened too.
I went through about 5 months and same on all. I have no faith that Tidal is picking the right artist to get the $2 royalties. Maybe there is some small print in the program that only certain artists or labels are eligible?
This is actually on the FAQ page for direct artist payouts. Tidal claims they will hold the money for up to a year (for artists that have yet to participate) and payout when they provide payment details.
They should still be tracked as your number 1 though.
It doesn’t hurt to ask here, it’s just one of the things where diagnosing bugs in foreign code is very difficult and it may well be that only Tidal can figure it out - and if it needs fixing, they are the only ones who can