For things like songs and TV shows where people are paid each time it is played or aired, who is verifying the number of times it’s played? What’s to stop the people who have to pay for royalties from just claiming it was played 5 times instead of 10? How does this work with a company like Netflix that doesn’t release their streaming numbers?
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Royalties is just a form of contract. And for any contract, each party keeps an eye out on the other.
So if an artist feels they aren’t receiving the appropriate royalties then they can sue the other person. And then each side would be responsible for providing evidence for their side.
Nielsen are a respected company and generate useful data about viewing habits etc. YouTube etc will have logins for auditors which give access to data needed.
For union performers like SAG and AFTRA, the union itself monitors what royalties are due and collects them to distribute to the recipients.
ASCAP does the same thing for songwriters.
Honestly the shortest answer is lawyers. Any royalties would be part of a signed contract and any signed contract will typically have lawyers on both sides making sure that the other is meeting their contractual obligations.
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