Great news!! So it’s just been announced that the US songwriter royalty rate from streaming companies will increase by 44% over the next five years following a victory ruling today by the Copyright Royalty Board!

If you’ve been following my social media and website, then you know about the ongoing advocacy push led by the National Music Publishers Association and the Nashville Songwriters Association (NSAI) with support from The Recording Academy, ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and others to raise awareness about how unfairly songwriters and producers were being paid due to outdated copyright laws. Streaming giants like Google, Spotify, Apple and Amazon were who we were up against.

This ruling now will increase overall revenue paid from 10.5% to 15.1% over the next five years, which is the largest rate increase in CRB history, according to NMPA President & CEO David Israelite. For example, if you would normally receive a check for $5,000, in practical terms, the jump would be about a 44% increase to $7,200.

Israelite further explains:

“Crucially, the decision also allows songwriters to benefit from deals done by record labels in the free market. The ratio of what labels are paid by the services versus what publishers are paid has significantly improved, resulting in the most favorable balance in the history of the industry.

“While an effective ratio of 3.82 to 1 is still not a fair split that we might achieve in a free market, it is the best songwriters have ever had under the compulsory license.

“The court also decided in our favor regarding a late fee which will force digital music services to pay songwriters faster or be subject to a significant penalty. The bottom line is this is the best mechanical rate scenario for songwriters in U.S. history which is critically important as interactive streaming continues to dominate the market.

“The decision represents two years of advocacy regarding how unfairly songwriters are treated under current law and how crucial their contributions are to streaming services.

“We thank the songwriters who shared their stories with the court and helped illustrate how badly these rate increases are needed. While the court did not grant songwriters a per-stream rate, the increases in overall rates and favorable terms are a huge win for music creators.”

This is huge win for all music creators – both songwriters and producers so be looking for some extra revenue for the next 5 years and beyond!

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