Apple Music to Pay Artists Up to 10% More Royalties for Spatial Audio Content

Apple has introduced royalty incentives to encourage music artists and record labels to publish tracks in Spatial Audio.

apple music spatial audio ad
In an update sent to partners on Monday seen by Music Business Worldwide, Apple said it will pay up to 10% more in royalties for Spatial Audio.

The news follows a Bloomberg report in December that Apple would this year begin prioritizing streams of songs mixed in Dolby Atmos technology in its streaming calculations.

Listeners do not have to listen to the Spatial Audio version of a song for artists to be eligible for the added benefits, with the availability of tracks in Dolby Atmos being sufficient.

According to 9to5Mac, Apple says the 10% bonus is a reward for artists delivering the content, and also compensation to recognize the additional time and effort required to mix in Dolby Atmos.

Apple Music‌ began hosting Spatial Audio tracks in 2021, using Dolby Atmos technology to replicate an in-person music experience with sound coming from various directions around the listener when using compatible speakers or headphones. In February 2022, Apple announced that over half of the service's subscribers used the feature.

Top Rated Comments

Sheepish-Lord Avatar
14 weeks ago
All artists will do is run their album through some digital process to meet the spatial audio requirement. To the user, it will be a worse experience and further cements the gimmick spatial audio is unless mastered appropriately.
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Ctrlos Avatar
14 weeks ago
It’s worth noting that Apple Pay artists double that of Spotify. I know it’s still a pittance but it’s twice the pittance. You can also directly support them via album sales from the iTunes Store.

In short if you care about the livelihood of your favourite musicians: don’t use Spotify. Oh, and go to as many gigs as you can.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Lord of the Pies Avatar
14 weeks ago
Although I use Apple Music, Apple devices across the board and AirPods Pro 2 & Max, I have Atmos disabled on everything. It seems to take the 'oomph' out of so many tracks, especially bass-heavy stuff. I found plenty of examples where a song sounded weak and in desperate need of more volume (at max), but with Atmos off, had sufficient volume and the bass thumped like thunder. Especially on AirPods Pro 2.

Dunno why, but for me, Atmos takes the life out of so much of my music.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MrWeenus Avatar
14 weeks ago

All artists will do is run their album through some digital process to meet the spatial audio requirement. To the user, it will be a worse experience and further cements the gimmick spatial audio is unless mastered appropriately.
This is the only thing that I'm scared of. Properly mastered dolby songs sound amazing on my home theatre/AirPods, but if the song is ran just through some automated process it sucks ass. :(
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MacKid Avatar
14 weeks ago

You seem to have a low opinion of artists as greedy swindlers.

And while some certainly are just that, many artists are actually very passionate about how their music sounds.

In the end, if the artist you listen to cares more about money than about sound quality, you are likely to get an inferior product.
Maybe artists have integrity, but labels don’t concern themselves with principles, and in the side of the industry I listen to, most songs are sold as singles to labels (e.g. Spinnin Records, Monstercat, UKF, Disciple), and when that happens they usually lose control of where the music shows up — and in what quality.

Billie Eilish’s albums belong to Interscope. Ed Sheeran’s music is property of WMG. Megan Thee Stallion is on Atlantic. Unless you’re listening to a uniquely scrappy and undiscovered band (or a “Taylor’s Version”), the mastering/republishing is most likely out of an artist’s hands.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
boak Avatar
14 weeks ago

Do you mean fans can tip their favourite artists or that Apple Music somehow pays the listener for their time?
Fan-centric means each subscriber’s monthly fee is divided up to pay each of the artist they listen to in a month, could be based on number tracks, time spent listening etc. This compensation model has been shown to pay emerging artists more.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 18 Siri Integrated Feature

iOS 18 Rumored to Add These 10 New Features to Your iPhone

Wednesday April 24, 2024 2:05 pm PDT by
Apple is set to unveil iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, so the software update is a little over six weeks away from being announced. Below, we recap rumored features and changes planned for the iPhone with iOS 18. iOS 18 will reportedly be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, with new ChatGPT-inspired generative AI features, a more customizable Home Screen, and much more....
apple id account

Apple ID Accounts Logging Out Users and Requiring Password Reset

Saturday April 27, 2024 12:41 am PDT by
There are widespread reports of Apple users being locked out of their Apple ID overnight for no apparent reason, requiring a password reset before they can log in again. Users say the sudden inexplicable Apple ID sign-out is occurring across multiple devices. When they attempt to sign in again they are locked out of their account and asked to reset their password in order to regain access. ...
macos sonoma feature purple green

Apple's Regular Mac Base RAM Boosts Ended When Tim Cook Took Over

Friday April 26, 2024 6:34 am PDT by
Apple used to regularly increase the base memory of its Macs up until 2011, the same year Tim Cook was appointed CEO, charts posted on Mastodon by David Schaub show. Earlier this year, Schaub generated two charts: One showing the base memory capacities of Apple's all-in-one Macs from 1984 onwards, and a second depicting Apple's consumer laptop base RAM from 1999 onwards. Both charts were...
maxresdefault

The MacRumors Show: Apple's iPad Event Finally Announced!

Friday April 26, 2024 8:31 am PDT by
On this week's episode of The MacRumors Show, we discuss the announcement of Apple's upcoming "Let loose" event, where the company is widely expected to announce new iPad models and accessories. Subscribe to The MacRumors Show YouTube channel for more videos Apple's event invite shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Apple CEO Tim...
ipad pro 2022

Apple Event Rumors: iPad Pro With M4 Chip and New Apple Pencil With Haptic Feedback

Sunday April 28, 2024 6:19 am PDT by
In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman outlined some of the new products he expects Apple to announce at its "Let Loose" event on May 7. First, Gurman now believes there is a "strong possibility" that the upcoming iPad Pro models will be equipped with Apple's next-generation M4 chip, rather than the M3 chip that debuted in the MacBook Pro and iMac six months ago. He said a ...
maxresdefault

Apple Announces 'Let Loose' Event on May 7 Amid Rumors of New iPads

Tuesday April 23, 2024 7:11 am PDT by
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...