In a big win for the publishing and songwriting community, the Copyright Royalty Board reaffirmed the 15.1% headline rate increase in royalties paid by streaming services to publishers for the 2018-22 period.
The rate was decided in 2018, but streaming services Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube/Google and Pandora appealed the following year, arguing that the increase will make their business models untenable in light of the billions of dollars that they already pay in royalties. (Apple Music, the world’s second-largest music-streaming service, is not involved in these proceedings.)
While the decision was not immediately released publicly, sources and National Music Publishers Assn. president/CEO David Israelite shared that the headline rate will increase to 15.1% from 11.4% for that period, as previously decided. The decision comes ahead of a similar decision for the 2023-27 period, for which the NMPA has argued for a 20% headline rate.
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