Breaking: Apple Is Paying Just 58% of Streaming Royalties Back to Indie Artists…

Spotify has signed its share of dirty contracts, but they also pay 70% of subscription revenue back to rights owners, including indie labels and artists.  “We pay out nearly 70% of our total revenue to rights holders,” the company flatly stated this year.  “We retain approximately 30%.”

Sheriff Apple has something different in mind.  According to contract details just leaked this morning to Digital Music News, Apple will be paying a sharp discount of 58% on subscription revenues earned on Apple Music, including individual ($9.99/mo) and family ($14.99/mo) accounts.

The contract also stipulates that on free trial and comp accounts, rights owners will receive 0%.

Apple Music, announced on Monday, officially launches on June 30th for iOS devices like iPhone, iPad, and Mac.  Android is next, and Apple anticipates attracting 100 million paying subscribers.

This doesn’t include major labels (and associated publishers), who signed their own, first-run deals ahead of the announcement of ‘Apple Music’ on Monday.<!–/*
* The backup image section of this tag has been generated for use on a
* non-SSL page. If this tag is to be placed on an SSL page, change the
*   ‘http://72.52.81.231/revive/www/delivery/…’
* to
*   ‘https://72.52.81.231/revive/www/delivery/…’
*
* This noscript section of this tag only shows image banners. There
* is no width or height in these banners, so if you want these tags to
* allocate space for the ad before it shows, you will need to add this
* information to the tag.
*
* If you do not want to deal with the intricities of the noscript
* section, delete the tag (from … to ). On
* average, the noscript tag is called from less than 1% of internet
* users.
*/–>

// <![CDATA[
var m3_u = (location.protocol==’https:’?’https://72.52.81.231/revive/www/delivery/r9.php’:’http://72.52.81.231/revive/www/delivery/r9.php’);
   var m3_r = Math.floor(Math.random()*99999999999);
   if (!document.MAX_used) document.MAX_used = ‘,’;
   document.write (“”);
// ]]>And here’s the broader royalty section, for your reading enjoyment.

The post Breaking: Apple Is Paying Just 58% of Streaming Royalties Back to Indie Artists… appeared first on Digital Music News.

Source: Industry News