Apple and Spotify Are Dueling Over How Much to Pay Songwriters

Author: Amy X. Wang / Source: Rolling Stone

Bebe Rexha performs at the Spotify Best New Artist 2019 Party at The Hammer Museum, in Los Angeles Spotify Best New Artist 2019 Party, Los Angeles, USA – 07 Feb 2019

Phil Mccarten/Invision/AP/REX/Sh

Music streaming has always been a cutthroat market, with the leading companies not having many positive things to say about one another.

But things became particularly heated this week when a small tweak to U.S. copyright rules — which actually happened a whole year ago and is resurfacing now because of a new development — set off a chain of public accusations among streaming companies, songwriters and music business associations.

It’s a complicated matter that centers around a densely formatted 119-page court document, so here’s a simplified rundown of the ruckus.

What is the issue?
In January 2018, the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board, a three-judge panel that determines digital music payment rates, raised the amount of money that services like Spotify have to pay to songwriters — from 10 percent of revenue to 15 percent of revenue over a five-year period, which is a significant increase that took a long time to negotiate and that the National Music Publishers Association hailed as “the biggest rate increase granted in CRB history.”

So why is everyone so angry now?
Last week,…

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