Easy Digital Downloads × Royalty program
Run a royalty program on Easy Digital Downloads
Pay creators a percentage every time one of their assigned downloads sells, tracked automatically by <strong>product ownership</strong> rather than referral links or coupon codes. Here is how it works on Easy Digital Downloads, and the recipe to install it.
Installs from the Product Royalties recipe. Requires the Essentials tier for product-ownership tracking.
Can you run a royalty program on Easy Digital Downloads?
Yes. Siren is a WordPress plugin that runs natively inside Easy Digital Downloads and pays creators a royalty every time one of their assigned downloads sells. You link each download to its creator with Siren's owned-products feature, and from then on attribution is automatic, with no referral links or coupon codes to share. Royalties are calculated per line item the moment an EDD order completes. Installs from the Product Royalties recipe on the Essentials tier.
“Exceptionally well-designed and built by someone who understands real-world affiliate program complexity.” Julian Foster · Digital Strategist
How royalty program runs on Easy Digital Downloads
The same recipe everywhere. Here is the path a referral takes through Easy Digital Downloads.
A customer buys a download
The order completes natively on your Easy Digital Downloads store. No redirect, no middleman.
Siren reads the EDD order
It listens to the order event on the same WordPress site and inspects each line item.
It credits the owner
Siren matches each download to the creator who owns it and credits a royalty on that line item's value.
The royalty is paid
As Easy Digital Downloads store credit, or real money via Stripe Connect on Plus.
What is specific to Easy Digital Downloads
The Easy Digital Downloads details that change how this program runs.
Attribution
By product ownership, not links
Royalties are tied to who owns a download, not who shared a link or code. Assign products once and tracking is automatic from then on.
Events
Fires on EDD sales and renewals
Reads completed orders, license and subscription renewals, and refunds natively on the same site.
Per line item
Each creator earns on their own work
A cart with downloads from three creators generates three separate royalty credits, each based on that download's price.
Payouts
Store credit or real money
Pay as Easy Digital Downloads store credit on Essentials, or real money via Stripe Connect on the Plus tier.
What you can reward, and what counts
The reward options and the Easy Digital Downloads events that trigger them for this program.
Ways to reward
- Percentage royalty per product sold
- Per-product or per-category rates
- Recurring on license and subscription renewals
- Independent credit when a product has multiple owners
What counts on Easy Digital Downloads
- Completed Easy Digital Downloads order
- License or subscription renewal
- Specific-product or bundle sale
- Refund or clawback reversal
Real ways teams run it
Marketplaces
Pay vendors a royalty on each sale
List downloads from many vendors and pay each one automatically whenever their product sells, with no links to manage.
Creators
Reward the people behind your catalog
Assign each download to its creator and share a defined percentage of every sale, so contributors earn from their own work.
Co-authored
Split royalties on shared products
When a download is owned by more than one creator, each one earns the royalty independently the moment it sells.
Renewals
Royalties on recurring revenue
With EDD recurring payments, creators can keep earning on license and subscription renewals, not just the first sale.
Product Royalties
Creators earn a percentage every time their assigned products sell, tracked automatically by product ownership.
The exact configuration. Install it on your Easy Digital Downloads site in one click.
What you need
To run this on Easy Digital Downloads
- A WordPress site with Easy Digital Downloads active.
- The Essentials tier, which powers product-ownership tracking and the royalty engagement type.
- For royalties on renewals: EDD recurring payments. For automatic real-money payouts: Plus (Stripe Connect).
- No referral links, no coupon codes, no API keys. It is the same WordPress site.
Royalty program on Easy Digital Downloads questions answered
How do creators get credited for a royalty on Easy Digital Downloads?
By product ownership. You add each creator as a collaborator in Siren and link their downloads to their profile with the owned-products feature. After that, every time one of those downloads sells in Easy Digital Downloads, the creator is credited automatically. There are no links to share and no codes to enter at checkout.
What Siren tier do I need to run a royalty program here?
The Essentials tier. Product-ownership tracking and the royalty engagement type that powers this program are Essentials features, so the free Lite tier is not enough for royalties. The Product Royalties recipe installs the program for you once Essentials is active.
Can one Easy Digital Downloads product belong to more than one creator?
Yes. Assign the same download to each creator who owns it, and when it sells every owner earns the royalty independently. This makes co-authored ebooks, bundled plugin packs, or jointly produced assets straightforward to pay out without any manual splitting.
How is the royalty amount calculated when a cart has products from several creators?
Per line item. Siren reads each line of the completed Easy Digital Downloads order, matches the download to its owner, and credits a percentage of that line's value. A single order containing downloads from three creators produces three separate royalty credits, each reflecting the actual price of that creator's product.
Do royalties apply to license renewals and subscriptions?
Yes, when you are using EDD recurring payments. You can decide whether the creator earns a royalty only on the first sale or on a chosen set of renewals, so creators of subscription software or membership content keep sharing in the recurring revenue their work brings in.
What happens to a royalty if the download is refunded?
Commissions move from pending to payable on your schedule. If an Easy Digital Downloads order is refunded inside your policy window, you can reject that royalty so it is never paid out, which keeps obligations clean for both you and the creator without any manual recalculation.
Other programs on Easy Digital Downloads
Same platform, different reward shape. Each has its own page and recipe.