Apple Music has released a note to artists, record labels and other rights holders about their fees and copyright practices, in which the streaming service claims to pay an average of one hundred percent, The Wall Street Journal reports and Pitchfork can confirm.
“While streaming services’ copyrights are calculated based on the streaming fee, a play still has value, ”says the note, seen by Pitchfork. “This value varies by subscription plan and country, but averaged $ 0.01 for Apple Music’s individual payment plans in 2020. This includes the copyright of labels and publishers.” .
Much of the note seems to be directed indirectly at main competitor Spotify. At one point, Apple claims to pay the same 52% to all labels. “While other services pay some independent labels a substantially lower rate than they pay on major labels, we pay the same title fee on all labels,” the note says. “That means artists can distribute music as they want, knowing that Apple Music will pay the same fee. Sign up with a label or stay independent; we believe in the value of all music.”
The note appears to refer to Spotify’s discovery mode, which gives artists the opportunity to opt for a lower promotional rights rate in exchange for an increase in the custom algorithmic playlist.
The note reads: “We believe in paying all creators the same fee, that a work has value and that creators should never pay for the presentation.” It later reads: “Apple Music’s team of global taste makers selects 30,000 editorial playlists. These taste creators select music on merit and don’t ask anyone to accept a lower royalty rate. “The same goes for Apple Music’s custom playlists and algorithmic recommendations.”
It should be noted that broadcast companies like Apple Music and Spotify do not pay artists directly, but pay record labels, distributors, and exercise rights organizations such as ASCAP and BMI, which then pay artists. Towards the end, Apple also shared its research findings on “alternative copyright models.”
“Our analysis has shown that they would result in a limited redistribution of royalties with a varied impact for artists,” the note says. “The rates for reproduction would no longer be the same for each work of a song. But more importantly, the changes would not increase what all creators gain from the transmission. Instead, these changes would shift copyright to a smaller number of labels while providing less transparency to creators everywhere. “
Apple’s announcement comes at a time when music industry artists are demanding that streaming services move to more equitable royalty rates. The Union of Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW) has campaigned for Spotify – which has a much larger user base than Apple Music, with 155 million paid subscribers compared to Apple Music’s 60 million in June 2019 -, start paying a penny per stream. In March, Spotify launched the Loud & Clear transparency initiative in an effort to open more communication with the artist community.
Read “Meet the experimental musicians who built their own streaming service” in the Pitch section.