I honestly don't know the answer, but it would seem to me that it would be based upon playing the track versus whatever the volume setting is .
Tidal and Spotify royalties
Odd ball question but thought I would post here. I often listen to streaming audio on my system and then switch to my turntable. I occasionally forget to pause or stop the Tidal stream prior to switching Preamp settings to the turntable. Although I understand the royalty for streaming is pennies (or less) to the artist, I wondered if royalties are collected if it is streaming without sound while I’m listening to records.