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Apple Will Pay More To Streaming Music Producers Than Spotify -- But Not Yet
Reader journovampire supplies a link to Music Business Worldwide (based on a re/code report) that says Apple's new Apple Music service, after a trial period during which the company has refused to pay royalties, is expected to pay a bit more than 70 percent of its subscription revenue out to the companies supplying it, rather than the 58 percent that some in the music industry had feared. Notes journovampire: "If 13% of iOS device users in the world paid $9.99-per-month for Apple Music, it would generate more cash each year than the entire recorded music biz manages right now."
Without knowing: All money goes into the same pot and gets divided per what's listened to totally. There's no point in doing it per user.
I'm guessing that the money would still go to the record companies who would just keep for themselves.
I do hope that Apple has it worked out that this doesn't happen. Not that I want Apple to sit on an even bigger pile of cash, just if musicians aren't going to get the money, I don't want it to go to the record companies.
"If 13% of iOS device users in the world paid $9.99-per-month for Apple Music, it would generate more cash each year than the entire recorded music biz manages right now."
I sure as hell don't purchase $120 in music per year, even when the CD was king I doubt many ever did.
So why do they suddenly expect us all to start spending as much on music as the most vociferous consumers?
$3-5 monthly, $36-60 per year, that's a price point where subscription services start making sense to me.
I stole this Sig
When they say, Apple "refused to pay royalties", they're giving a false impression that Apple is supposed to pay royalties, but they refused. In fact, they negotiated a deal with record labels so that they wouldn't have to pay royalties during their "free trial" period. Customers aren't paying Apple during that period, and Apple isn't going to pay record labels, but that was all negotiated with record labels in advance.
They will do what everyone else does. Pay based on total plays for all users, give the money to the recording industry bodies responsible for distribution in each country, and let them handle it. It's a huge scam because to actually get on a streaming service and get paid you have to sign up with a record label that is a member of the local distribution body, you can't just go to Spotify and get paid directly.
That's why YouTube is a more interesting platform for most musicians. You can get paid just by having a bank account, you don't need to be with a record label. It's a shame Google's music streaming service isn't the same.
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Because they negotiated it in advance. It's not really that Apple "refused to pay royalties", but that they negotiated licensing terms such that they aren't required to pay royalties under specific circumstances.
The summary is poorly worded.