UK Parliament Makes Recommendations for Music-Streaming Royalty Payments

After a lengthy investigation, they recommend that artists and record companies split the revenue evenly. But what about the minuscule royalties themselves?

The UK’s parliament spent months investigating where all the music streaming money goes, and they’re recommending the entire system be changed. This was at the behest of some obscure musicians like Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger.

Check out the BBC’s article. And obviously the same issues apply to other countries too.

The recommendations include artists and record companies splitting the royalties evenly.

Good. But quoting from the article: “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.”

Could the paltry amount of the royalty payments, rather than how they’re distributed, be the bigger issue?

As always, we welcome your comments.