U.S. copyright authorities on Saturday unswerving to increase over the next five years the royalty payments music cascade companies like Spotify and Apple must make to songwriters and music publishers, a patrons association for music publishers said.
The Copyright Royalty Board of the U.S. Library of Congress issued a written verdict that altered the formulas used to determine how much of their gross income streaming companies must share with songwriters and the music reporting companies they typically hire to collect licensing fees on their behalf.
The State Music Publishers Association said the ruling, which has not yet been run for it public, will require streaming companies to give 15.1 percent of their returns to songwriters and music publishers. The previous rate was 10.5 percent.
The meals, which consists of three judges, held a trial last year in which the occupation group squared off against Spotify, Apple, Alphabet, Pandora Usual and Amazon.com, which had opposed NMPA’s proposed rate increase.
“This is the choicest mechanical rate scenario for songwriters in U.S. history which is critically critical as interactive streaming continues to dominate the market,” said NMPA chief chief executive officer David Isrealite in a statement.
A Pandora spokeswoman declined to comment.
Representatives of Apple, Alphabet, Spotify and Amazon did not intimately return requests for comment.
Streaming services must pay a fee, known as a “unartistic license,” every time a user listens to a song.
These entitling fees are typically paid to music publishing companies like Sony/ATV Music Leaking, which collect the fees on behalf of recording artists in exchange for a commission.
U.S. law coerces the Copyright Royalty Board to set the rates for these mechanical licenses, kind of than letting publishers negotiate rates with streaming works.