“The U.S. Justice Department is in the process of deciding whether to revise the laws regarding music royalty rates — changes that could have an effect on Apple’s streaming music offerings Beats Music and iTunes Radio,” Neil Hughes reports for AppleInsider.
“The music industry is currently trying to overturn the current licensing rules, which are heavily regulated by the government. At the moment, the industry is required to license songs to anyone who wishes to rebroadcast at a reasonable rate,” Hughes reports. “The two performance-rights organizations that represent the music industry are the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, and Broadcast Music, Inc., both of which have been around for decades.”
“If ASCAP and BMI are successful, analyst Rod Hall of J.P. Morgan expects the outcome to hurt Apple, which is attempting to gain a stronghold on the streaming music market with its iTunes Radio streaming service, and Beats Music on-demand subscription offering,” Hughes reports. “‘Upward pressure on streaming costs could be a negative for Apple’s newly acquired Beats Music unit,’ Hall said in a note to investors on Friday, a copy of which was provided to AppleInsider. ‘Typically, attempting to pass this sort of cost increase through to customers after the low price Genie is out of the bottle is tough in a competitive environment.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If streaming royalties increase, who’d be best equipped to pay the higher rates, the current cadre of pissant music streamers or Apple Inc. which has more money than most countries and isn’t dependent on streaming music for their income?
Have a nice day, Spotify. Enjoy your weekend, Pandora.
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