Apple Music continues to position itself as the champion of music streaming for its music artists. Apple wrote to them saying it pays a penny per stream, with record labels getting 52% of subscription revenue. This revenue structure is higher than what Spotify pays their record artists.
“Discussion about streaming royalties continues, we believe it is important to share our values. We believe in paying every creator the same rate, that a play has a value, and that creators should never have to pay for music being promoted.” Apple reportedly says according to a letter seen by The Wall Street Journal. This comes as the UK antitrust committee is investigating the fairness of streaming music services are to artists.
Apple’s letter also specifies that it pays 52% of all its subscription revenues to record labels. Spotify’s payments are more complex, as that service includes both subscribers and an ad-supported free tier.
According to the same report, Spotify at times will pay approximately the same, or even slightly more, at 50% to 53%. However, on average, Spotify is paying around half of what Apple does — per stream. It pays more overall as Spotify has a bigger share of the streaming market with 345 million total active users.
Apple’s letter to artists is not the first time the company positions itself as the best service for them. Last February, Apple Music’s global director of Music Publishing, Elena Segal told a music week that the company wants to pay musicians fairly.
Amazon reported that its music subscription services had 55 million subscribers in early 2020 while Apple last reported in 2019 that it has passed 60 million subscribers.
