Apple Confirms 71.5% Revenue Sharing for Apple Music, No Royalties During Trial Period
Apple vice president of iTunes content Robert Kondrk has confirmed to Re/code that the Cupertino-based company will share 71.5% of Apple Music revenue with music owners in the United States.
That number will be slightly higher outside of the United States, averaging around 73%, but Apple will pay no royalties during the three-month free trial period in return for paying a few percentage points extra.
"Apple won’t pay music owners anything for the songs that are streamed during Apple Music’s three-month trial period, a bone of contention with music labels during negotiations for the new service. But Kondrk says Apple’s payouts are a few percentage points higher than the industry standard, in part to account for the lengthy trial period; most paid subscription services offer a free one-month trial."
The payments will be primarily sent to record labels and publishers that own the rights to songs and their underlying compositions, meaning that the royalties will not necessarily line the pockets of musicians directly. Artists often have their own individual deals with the record label they are signed to, so their payouts are often dependant on the terms of their contracts.
Apple paying seven-tenths of every dollar to rights holders is the standard rate paid by other streaming music services such as market leader Spotify, although Apple Music may be more lucrative for record labels due to its absence of a free ad-supported tier. Spotify argues that Apple also offers free streaming music through iTunes Radio and its upcoming Beats 1 global radio station.
Apple Music was unveiled last week as an all-in-one streaming music service, live global radio station and social platform for artists to connect with fans. The subscription-based service will be available June 30 for $9.99 per month after a three-month free trial period for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac and PC. Apple TV and Android versions of the service will be available in the fall.
Popular Stories
Continuing the tradition set with the iPhone 13 Pro, only the highest-end iPhone 14 models will feature Apple's ProMotion display technology, according to a respected display analyst.
Ross Young, who on multiple occasions has detailed accurate information about Apple's future products, said in a tweet that ProMotion will not be expanded to the entire iPhone 14 lineup and will remain...
A bug in WebKit's implementation of a JavaScript API called IndexedDB can reveal your recent browsing history and even your identity, according to a blog post shared on Friday by browser fingerprinting service FingerprintJS.
In a nutshell, the bug allows any website that uses IndexedDB to access the names of IndexedDB databases generated by other websites during a user's browsing session....
Apple is planning to release a fifth-generation iPad Air with similar features as the sixth-generation iPad mini, including an A15 Bionic chip, 12-megapixel Ultra Wide front camera with Center Stage support, 5G for cellular models, and Quad-LED True Tone flash, according to Japanese blog Mac Otakara.
Citing reliables sources in China, the report claims that the new iPad Air could be...
Much has been said about what consumers could see from Apple in 2022, but the company is also working on a handful of rumored products that aren't expected to be unveiled for at least another 12 months, and in some cases a lot longer. Of course, that's assuming they get released at all. Apple works on many potential products some of which ultimately never see the light of day. With that in...
Apple's second-generation AirPods Pro could arrive alongside a new series of accessories, recent leaked images suggest.
Alleged leaked photos of the next-generation AirPods Pro obtained by MacRumors showed a charging case with a metal loop on the side for attaching a strap. Apple has not used this design for any of its other AirPod models and it is unclear why it would be added in this...
Netflix today updated the prices for its streaming plans, and all of its offerings are now more expensive. The Basic plan is now priced at $9.99 per month, the Standard plan is priced at $15.49 per month, and the Premium plan is priced at $19.99 per month.
The Basic plan is $1 more expensive, up from $8.99 per month. This plan allows users to watch on just one screen at a time, and it limits ...
A Tesla Model 3 owner has resorted to a workaround to implement Apple CarPlay in his vehicle, amid no sign of official support from Tesla (via Tesla North).
Apple CarPlay and Apple Music support are among the most-requested Tesla features, but with no indication that Tesla is willing to implement Apple CarPlay in its vehicles, Polish developer Michał Gapiński took matters into his own...
Hole-punch? Pill? Hole-punch and pill? Rumors about what the front camera system on the iPhone 14 Pro will look like are evolving rapidly, and it now appears we might be getting a novel but potentially controversial design later this year.
Other major stories this week included some confusion and controversy about iCloud Private Relay being disabled for some T-Mobile customers, increasing...
Top Rated Comments
Please don't buy Apple Music. Buy all of the music you listen to and do not 'pirate' music and you will be doing a huge favor to the artists you support.
I know this is probably industry standard, and due to negotiations with the labels, but for me, that means I will not buy Apple Music. I simply do not want to support such a business model.
You viewpoint is shortsighted.
If the free 3 months trial generates a lot of extra subscribers , then the payout is obviously greater and in the end the artists get more money (depending on their deals)