“This afternoon, Apple submitted a preliminary proposal to the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board to simplify the way music-streaming companies pay songwriters and publishers — in a way that could make it more expensive for rivals like Spotify and YouTube to keep offering free streaming,” Robert Levine reports for Billboard.
“Right now, streaming companies pay songwriters and publishers between 10.5 percent and 12 percent of their overall revenue, according to a complicated formula,” Levine reports. “Apple, which has always had a gift for creative simplicity, wants to make this process easier and more transparent, according to a copy of the filing obtained by Billboard. The company’s proposal to the Copyright Royalty Board suggests a simple, ‘all-in’ statutory rate that would be ‘fair, simple and transparent, unlike the incredibly complicated structure that currently exists.'”
“It suggests a rate of $0.00091 per interactive stream, or 9.1 cents per hundred plays,” Levine reports. “The songwriting royalties for 100 streams would equal those for one download, which has an appealing simplicity.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Anything that hastens the death of free tiers is good for artists and Apple.
Musicians and the music industry undermines themselves by allowing their music to be streamed by “free,” ad-supported outfits. – MacDailyNews, December 17, 2015
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The record labels should smarten up and demand fair payment for supplying content to services that offer free tiers which will kill those tiers with great immediacy. – MacDailyNews, October 8, 2015
SEE ALSO:
In likely boon for Apple Music, Copyright Royalty Board raises rates on free music services – December 17, 2015
Why Apple wants to kill free music – October 8, 2015
Apple Music’s huge advantage over Spotify – June 9, 2015
Time to finally Pay the Piper.
You want appealing simplicity? How about a whole lousy cent?
Hey, don’t go crazy on us now!
Under that proposal, people who stream music less than an average of 2 hours and 13 minutes per day will be overpaying Apple (or Spotify), as they will use less than $10 worth of streaming per month.
This math obviously doesn’t include any profit margin for the streaming service.
In other words, if you listen for more than about two hours a day, you’re getting a good deal from Apple.
This math obviously doesn’t