About two weeks ago it was reported that talks with MP’s on the Digital, Cultural, Media, and Sport (DCMS) committee were being held as musicians were raising issues with streaming royalties and how they get paid. It was heard from the likes of Elbow’s Guy Garvey and Nadine Shah as they speak out about how record labels handle royalties and payments to musicians. Talks have continued with more musicians coming forward to further the MP’s understanding on the matter.
“At present, Spotify is believed to pay between £0.002 and £0.0038 per stream, while Apple Music pays about £0.0059. YouTube pays the least – about £0.00052 (or 0.05 pence) per stream.”. Music is an important part of our lives, and streaming is “such a useful and much-used method of consuming media content in this day and age” and is the easiest way to get widespread music listens and attention. it also tracks how many streams a song gets. However, Nile Rodgers and Fiona Bevan are among the new musicians shedding the harsh light on streaming royalties
Bevan, who is a songwriter for artists, has gone on record to say that “Right now, hit songwriters are driving Ubers. It’s quite shameful.”. Bevan has been credited for writing songs for well-known artists like One Direction, Steps, and Lewis Capaldi revealed just how much she would earn from a song “she had earned just £100 for co-writing a track on Kylie Minogue’s number one album, Disco.”. She added that even the most successful among songwriters are struggling to pay their bills this year.
CHIC frontman Nile Rodgers has also spoken to MP’s on the matter of streaming royalties. Rodgers admitted that before this year he never truly looked into how much he made through royalties because “my tour revenue has been so substantial that I could support my entire organisation”. Rodgers links the issues to the none-discloser agreements that are set between record labels and the songwriter.
Rodgers wants transparency on the matter saying that “record labels retain up to 82% of the royalties generated from music played on services like Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music” and has branded the system as just ridiculous. Rodgers also accused the record labels of deliberately withholding money from songwriters “I look at the record labels as my partners. And the interesting thing is that every single time I’ve audited my partners, I find money.”
“We don’t even know what a stream is worth… and there’s no way you can find out”
Chic’s Nile Rodgers gives evidence to MPs’ music streaming inquiry https://t.co/fiaZzkpggH pic.twitter.com/mAZKTLPsQB
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) December 8, 2020
As it stands, each stream of a song is counted as a sale of that song which then gives the record label the largest share of that ‘sale’. However, Rodgers believes that each stream is more akin to a radio broadcast, “or a licence of the recording, which would give artists 50% of the royalties” and that labels won’t want to change this as it maximises their profits. “Artists and songwriters need to update clauses in their contracts to reflect the true nature of how their songs are being consumed – which is via a licence. It is something that people are borrowing from [the streaming services]”. You can read our reporting on the first hear from artists to the DCMS here!
