Simon & The Standard License

Like Lily, Simon is also selling an EP through Tunecore but he decided to cover David Bowie’s “Changes.” Inspired by Lily’s speedy rise to fame, Simon feels like success is about to strike and doesn’t want to worry about trying to predict how many downloads he’s going to sell—so he opts for the Standard License. Simon pays the one-time $70.00 licensing fee and is covered forever. Over the first few months, he sells 1000 downloads (yeah!) and he only pays the mechanical royalty of $124.00 (12.4 cents x 1000 units)—the processing fee is waived for the first 1000 units sold.

Lo and behold, over the next few months he sells 400 more downloads! His credit card is charged $49.60 for the mechanical royalties due (12.4 cents x 400 units) plus $31.60 for the processing fee (7.9 cents x 400 units) for a total of $81.20. Small price for fame, right?

But guess what? A few months later, he’s sold an additional 4000 downloads. WOW. He happily pays his mechanical royalties fee of $496 (12.4 cents x 4000 units) and because he’s hit the $200 cap on the processing fee (7.9 cents x 4000 units = $316) he only has to pay $200, saving him over $100 on processing fees. It pays to be successful, huh?

That’s not all—since we last heard from them, Simon and Lily have gone on to form a band called Simily. Their new full length album has both a David Bowie cover AND a Prince cover. They have two Standard Licenses and live happily ever after.