(Hypebot) – A proposal has been filed by Apple with the Copyright Royalty Board on Friday, to simplify the streaming royalties paid to songwriters. In a direct jab at free ad-supported services like Spotify and YouTube, Apple proposed a flat rate of $0.00091 for each stream, whether on a free or an ad-supported service. Currently, most music streamers pay songwriter's a percentage of total revenue from ads and subscriptions.
The amount that songwriters are paid for streaming is diluted by the hundreds of millions of streams on ad-supported music services. Apple's filed proposal would change that, and unsurprisingly also strengthen its own hand in its battle against its rivals.
That's an effective rate of $910 per one million streams.
“An interactive stream has an inherent value regardless of the business model a service provider chooses,” said Apple in its' proposal.
A spokeswoman for Apple confirmed the filing but declined to comment. Apple’s proposal came as part of the US Copyright Royalty Board's effort to set statutory rates for downloads and interactive streaming from 2018 to 2022, according to the New York Times.
Spotify, Google, the RIAA and other industry players were expected to file their opinions by Friday's deadline, but they have not yet been made public. -Staff Writers
