Publishers Want 32% Rate Increase From Royalty Board & Streaming Services

Publishers Want 32% Royalties For Streaming (Photo: Shutterstock.com)

According to BILLBOARD, MUSIC PUBLISHERS’ ASSOCIATION (NMPA) is seeking a 32.4% increase in royalties for songwriters in the headline rate to 20% of streaming service’s (including SPOTIFY, APPLE, AMAZON, PANDORA and GOOGLE) revenue for a full five-year term for PHONORECORDS IV, covering 2023 through 2027. That's following yesterday's deadline for proposed royalties from digital services, which asked the US COPYRIGHT ROYALTY BOARD (CRB) for the lowest rates in history.

The NMPA is seeking a rate determined by the greater amount of a four-tier formula. That blueprint is comprised of the greater of 20% of a service’s revenue, referred to as the headline rate; or 40% of what is paid to record labels or other master recording owners; or $1.50 per subscriber; or $0.0015 per play. This formula would be applied each month during the year, so the actual amounts paid out would change depending on usage and subscriber count in any given month.

The CRB is expected to weigh the NMPA ask against what the digital services individually propose and then will set the rate for the 2023-2027 terms. While the filings suggesting new rates by the digital services were due yesterday to the CRB, those filings likely won’t be posted to the CRB website until redacted copies are prepared that show the rate requests being asked but don’t show proprietary data each filer uses to back-up their arguments. Consequently, the filings might not appear on the CRB website for a week or two. 

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