Spotify has reached an agreement with the National Music Publisher’s Association (NMPA) over unpaid royalties. The streaming service will pay out around $21 million to publishers and songwriters in the deal, according to sources, with roughly $16 million set aside for royalty payments and a $5 million bonus fund for publishers and songwriters who opt in to the deal. The deal covers all content between Spotify’s inception and June 30th, 2017
The streaming service has been the target of a few lawsuits surrounding unpaid royalties, the latest of which was demanding $150 million in damages. Spotify is hoping that this deal with the NMPA will placate most of the complaints from publishers and songwriters, and it can move on from those lawsuits, and it may be right. Back in 2011, the NMPA struck a deal with YouTube and most of its constituents opted in instead of attempting alternative lawsuits.
Read the rest of this post on the original site »
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?
Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:
First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.
Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.
So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)
If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.
Yes, I'll give $5/month
Yes, I'll give $5/month
We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and
Google Pay. You can also contribute via