Creator and Performer Compensation and Payout Terms

Last updated: October 3, 2026

1. What compensation is

Compensation is a payment from the operator to you for the use of your authored content or licensed performance during a period. It is not a marketplace payout, a shared wallet, or your own sales revenue: readers buy from the operator (see Operator Identity), and the operator pays creators and performers as accounts-payable obligations, the same way it would pay any vendor. Mystrix has no creator or performer wallet, balance, or cash-out feature; your compensation surfaces are your Compensation summary, your royalty statements, and your payment history.

2. How your share is calculated

Each period, documented platform operating costs are deducted from eligible platform revenue before the creator percentage and the operator's share (the "house cut") are calculated. Those costs include licensed-performer compensation, platform-funded AI generation, and provider-confirmed refunds and chargebacks. Provider-reported AI charges are used when supplied; otherwise the platform records an estimate from the model rate card in effect for that call. An estimate is provisional: estimated, unpriced, or otherwise unreconciled platform-funded costs block the accounting close and statement generation until exact provider/category totals are recorded. Creator-owned AI credentials are never charged to the platform pool. The Compensation summary exposes gross revenue, operating costs, net distributable revenue, the separate performer deduction, and any current accounting-close blockers. The performer pool is deducted before the creator percentage is applied; it is not taken out of an already-calculated creator pool.

The house-cut percentage is an operator-configured setting, not a number fixed by this document, because it can be changed in platform configuration — printing a specific figure here would risk this document silently going out of date. As currently implemented, if no house-cut percentage is configured the system falls back to 20%, and any configured value is clamped between 0% and 100% (`house_cut_percent` in `platform_config/__init__.py`, enforced through `api/app/services/system_config.py`). The percentage actually in effect for you is always shown live on your Compensation summary (`GET /api/creator/compensation`, surfaced on the creator dashboard's Compensation page). A royalty statement freezes the gross revenue, cost deductions, performer pool, post-performer creator-pool basis, house cut, and creator pool used for that period.

Eligible platform revenue is completed subscription receipts only. No portion of the creator pool is funded from credits, credit purchases, or any operator-issued credit grant.

Within the creator pool, your share for the period is proportional to your compensation-eligible plays — plays of your content by other users — as a fraction of every creator's compensation-eligible plays for that period. Plays where you are the one playing your own content are counted for your analytics totals but excluded from this compensation-eligible calculation.

Some reader purchases are attributable to one creator rather than to the platform generally. For a completed broadcast pay-per-view purchase, the operator records your portion after the house cut as direct attributed revenue. Individual stories are not sold; story-interaction compensation instead comes through the eligible platform-revenue and play-share calculation above. For broadcast pay-per-view purchases, the house cut used is the one frozen when the reader started the provider purchase; a later configuration change does not rewrite that purchase's creator portion. That amount is added to your royalty statement in full; it is not divided by your share of platform plays and the house cut is not applied to it a second time. It remains compensation paid by the operator under this agreement, not a direct reader payment, creator wallet, or marketplace balance. Only purchase records carrying the operator's payment reference and payable status qualify; refunded or disputed purchases and amounts a creator reports through analytics endpoints do not.

### 2.1 Advertising component

Advertising revenue is a third, separately attributed source. It is never mixed into the subscription pool above and it does not reprice a broadcast purchase or a publication fee: one revenue event is recognized in exactly one component. Advertising money exists for compensation only after an operator imports the advertising provider's own reconciled financial statement through the platform's audited settlement import; an impression count, an ad request or a client event is not money and is never payable.

A recorded operator policy fixes the deduction order for each imported statement once: an attributable serving/delivery cost is retained first, then the creator share of the post-cost distributable remainder. Only finalized earnings that attribute to your Story through a recorded ad-unit allocation rule can become your liability. Amounts with no recorded attribution, house-operated Stories, and the unallocated balance of each pool remain platform money and are never paid out as a guessed creator amount. The rate in force is frozen onto the allocation when it is recorded, so a later policy change affects future statements only.

Statements are recognized once each, in the period containing the provider statement's own start; a provider correction is a separate statement recognized in the period containing its own start, so an issued royalty statement is never silently rewritten. If advertising is allocated after its recognized period closed, the unpaid creator amount appears on a later period's advertising line, including when that creator had no statement in the original period. Previously booked advertising is subtracted so the allocation is not paid twice. Advertising carries no performer component: no performance licence grants the operator a right to reuse a performer's voice, likeness or recording in an advertisement, so no advertising amount is inferred as payable to a performer. Your advertising component appears on your royalty statement as its own line and is included in the scheduled payout under the same acknowledgement, hold and idempotency rules as any other compensation. The configured delivery-cost and creator-share percentages are operator-configured governed values rather than promises fixed in this document; the values actually applied are frozen on each allocation.

### 2.2 Licensed performer components

A performer statement itemizes a fixed session component and a use component. The fixed

component separately identifies publication fees and approved commissioned-performance amounts.

The publication fee is one fixed payable per performer for each Story version that is

published with any qualifying performance licence belonging to that performer. The sealed

licences may authorize cast voice, a selected expert contribution, or a licensed likeness image;

multiple licences for the same performer in one release still produce one publication fee. The

rate in force at publication is stored with that immutable version, so a later rate change cannot

rewrite an accrued component.

A commissioned voice performance carries one positive amount in Canadian dollars in the

sealed request. It becomes payable only when the creator approves the delivered clip. At that

approval, Mystrix freezes that CAD statement amount and

the request, Story, clip, performer, and approval identities. The approved item appears on the

performer's statement alongside the publication-fee subtotal. Invalid or incomplete commission

records block statement generation; they are not omitted or valued from a fallback rate.

The use component divides the period's configured performer-use pool by measured licensed audio/video use. For each immutable Story version, the licensed milliseconds for a performer are multiplied by that Story version's compensation-eligible plays for the period; a performer's share is their resulting weight divided by every performer's resulting weight. The server-side `performance_uses` ledger records measured post-trim PCM for a materialized voice clip, the summed duration of the exact selected audio or video recording segments for licensed expert testimony, or one exact use unit for an attributed likeness image. A likeness unit is visible in use history and can qualify its performer for the fixed session component, but it is not assigned a fabricated duration in the duration-weighted use pool. Reader playback telemetry is never the payment source.

The fixed session rate (`performer_session_fee_cad`) and use-pool percentage (`performer_use_pool_percent`) are operator-configured governed values rather than promises fixed in this document. Their defaults are zero until the operator approves non-zero rates. Every issued performer statement records the exact rate, pool, measured milliseconds, eligible plays, weight, share, and component amounts used, so changing either setting affects future accruals or periods and does not rewrite an issued statement.

### 2.3 Licensed character reuse

If you make a character available to other creators, you choose its per-use price in Canadian

dollars. Another creator accepts immutable terms for a particular Story and pays the operator

for a prepaid usage budget. Only settled net purchase funds back the royalty; subscription

credits and the borrowing creator’s Story earnings do not fund it. The operator applies no

additional house cut to this component. Character reuse permission does not replace a required

performer voice or likeness licence.

A qualified use is the first reached use of that character in a real reader Story session,

or a committed eligible private-chat reply. Your own use, previews, image/frame loads, failed

or refused replies and retries do not earn a royalty. Your accepted price stays fixed for that

grant. Removing the catalogue offer stops new grants; an exceptional rights withdrawal or the

accepted expiry stops future delivery, while already earned amounts remain owed.

Exact amounts smaller than one cent carry forward until they can combine into payable cents.

They are not rounded away. Character royalties are a separate component on ordinary creator

statements and use the existing payment schedule, minimum and settlement rules below. An owner

can earn this component without having Story plays in that period. The borrowing creator can

request a refund of unconsumed refundable whole-cent cash through the existing refund process;

consumed amounts and retained sub-cent liabilities remain accounted for. A purchase chargeback

blocks further unfunded use and creates a recorded funding shortfall rather than silently

removing compensation already earned by the character owner.

3. Statements and payment schedule

Compensation is calculated and reported on a monthly cycle: the operator issues you a royalty statement for the period rather than requiring you to invoice. Creators use `/api/creator/compensation/statements`; performers list, read, and acknowledge their role-isolated statements at `/api/performer/me/compensation/statements`. A creator query can never read a performer statement, even when both roles belong to the same account. As currently configured, both are scheduled for the 20th of the month (`DEFAULT_COMPENSATION_PAYMENT_DAY` in `platform_config/__init__.py`), unless an operator sets a different date for a specific payout run.

4. Minimum payment amount

A payout is not scheduled until the statements being paid total at least the platform's minimum payout amount, currently CAD 50 (`DEFAULT_MIN_COMPENSATION_PAYMENT_CAD` in `platform_config/__init__.py`, enforced in `api/app/routes/admin_compensation.py` before any payment is scheduled). If your balance is below that minimum, it carries forward and combines with a later statement rather than being paid out early or left unpaid indefinitely.

5. Payment methods and currency

Compensation statements and payments are calculated in Canadian dollars. A commissioned voice request

is agreed in Canadian dollars and keeps that same CAD amount on the statement and payment rail.

The operator can schedule ACH, wire, PayPal, or

check payments. You can read and update the PayPal email used as your default payout destination

from creator Payout settings (`GET/PUT /api/creator/compensation/payout-settings`) or performer

Payout settings (`GET/PUT /api/performer/me/compensation/payout-settings`). Both role views use the

same account-owned destination record. That address is returned only to your authenticated

account and is not displayed publicly. If an operator schedules a payment without entering

another method or destination, the system uses your saved PayPal address; an operator may instead

select another supported rail and destination for an individual payment. Bank and check details

remain operator-managed and are not stored in the account-owned payout-settings record.

6. Adjustments

An issued statement is never edited after the fact. Provider-reconciled costs, a refund, a

chargeback, a reinstatement, or an advertising correction recognized in the current accounting

period can produce a signed corrective statement for an issued original. That statement names

the issued statement it corrects, itemizes the changed component and freezes the source records

and financial basis used. The original plus all of its corrective statements is the current

effective amount. Advertising allocated after its own recognized period closed follows the

carryforward rule in Section 2.1.

A positive correction is payable through the ordinary statement and payment rail. A negative

correction or negative advertising carryforward must be included with any later positive

statement before that later statement can be

scheduled; if the combined amount remains below the minimum payment threshold, it continues to

carry forward. This makes deductions collectable without silently changing a statement you have

already reviewed.

Future compensation may be reduced to account for:

• Refunds issued to readers for your content (see Refunds).

• Chargebacks or payment disputes on purchases of your content.

• Fraud or a confirmed policy violation.

• Legally required tax withholding.

7. Tax documentation

Submit a signed PDF tax document in the Creator or Performer compensation workspace.

The Company reviews it and records its validity, jurisdiction, withholding treatment and

expiry before scheduling or sending compensation. A replaced, rejected or expired document

requires a new review. Each scheduled statement and payment records gross compensation,

tax withheld and the net payment. The minimum payment threshold applies before withholding;

withholding reduces the amount sent and remains a separate Company tax liability until

remittance is recorded.

8. Contact

Questions about a specific statement or payment should go through our support system.