Blog: Streaming Royalties

Read our latest daily deep dives, hot takes, and exciting updates about the entertainment world. Check out the latest insight from your favourite analyst, or search by coverage areas - music, entertainment and fandom, creator economy and social.

Why don’t we hear popular music on popular podcasts?

Cover image for Why don’t we hear popular music on popular podcasts?

Rutger Rosenborg

29 Feb 2024

There are a number of popular podcasts that dissect popular music. One is called, well, Dissect . Others are Popcast , Song Exploder , and Switched on Pop . Podcasts like these usually play extended sections — if not whole recordings — of popular tracks, but beyond that, it is virtually impossible to find a podcast where you can hear music that is not a commissioned theme song or ‘royalty-free’.

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Overanalysing our Spotify Wrapped: what MIDiA’s stats say about the industry

Cover image for Overanalysing our Spotify Wrapped: what MIDiA’s stats say about the industry

Tatiana Cirisano

4 Dec 2023

Music streaming

It would not be the holidays without Spotify Wrapped, the ubiquitous marketing scheme that involves Spotify repackaging the vast amount of data it collects about users into fun personalised insights ready for social media.

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Spotify re-positions two-tier licensing (we are getting closer, and it can be even better)

Cover image for Spotify re-positions two-tier licensing (we are getting closer, and it can be even better)

Mark Mulligan

24 Nov 2023

Two tier licensing

Streaming Royalties

Spotify released a blog post laying out how it wants the world to understand its new two-tier royalty system. The positioning is clear, leading with the statement that it will drive “an additional $1 billion toward[s] emerging and professional artists” and the PR push included several supporting quotes from the independent sector (with no major label quote to be seen).

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Why artist subscriptions are the perfect partner to two-tier licensing

Cover image for Why artist subscriptions are the perfect partner to two-tier licensing

Mark Mulligan

2 Nov 2023

With two-tier licensing now a thing , it is time to focus the discussion on how to add new components to the DSP ecosystem that will help long-tail artists continue to thrive in this brave new world. There are many positives that two-tier licensing will bring (helping mid-tier artist remuneration, attaching an appropriate premium to lean-forward listening, etc.

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Two-tier licensing is about to become a reality

Cover image for Two-tier licensing is about to become a reality

Mark Mulligan

24 Oct 2023

Streaming Royalties

With the dust still far from settled on the UMG / Deezer streaming royalty proposal, something even bigger is coming: Spotify is turning the concept into reality in Q1 2024. The behind-the-scenes conversations have been ongoing for some time, but the details were stated publicly on panels at last week’s ADE conference, meaning that the information is now firmly in the public domain.

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Goodbye DVDs, hello streaming economics rationalisation

Cover image for Goodbye DVDs, hello streaming economics rationalisation

Tim Mulligan

4 Oct 2023

streeaming economics

Last Friday saw the end of 25 years of Netflix’s DVDs subscription business, drawing to a close the pre-streaming model of home entertainment for the largest international subscription video on demand (SVOD) service.

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Streaming’s problems will not be fixed by royalties alone

Cover image for Streaming’s problems will not be fixed by royalties alone

Mark Mulligan

15 Sep 2023

Streaming Music

Music streaming

Streaming Royalties

UMG and Deezer’s artist-centric royalty proposal got the amount of attention both parties probably wanted , if not necessarily the type of attention they were after. However, the intent was to kick start an industry debate, and that objective was clearly achieved.

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How to make artist centric artist centric

Cover image for How to make artist centric artist centric

Mark Mulligan

6 Sep 2023

Streaming Royalties

Music streaming

Music Royalties

Deezer and UMG announced a major (in both senses of the word) shake up of streaming music royalties. This is arguably the biggest streaming market development in years, as it will set the tone for market-wide change.

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With its Australia experiment, TikTok gives the music industry the ultimate test

Cover image for With its Australia experiment, TikTok gives the music industry the ultimate test

Tatiana Cirisano

9 Feb 2023

independent music

Licensing negotiations between platforms and the music industry come down to one question: which side needs the other more? The more that TikTok needs hit music to attract users, the more leverage the music industry (meaning labels and publishers) gains.

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Everyone hurts – the problem with ‘fixing’ streaming

Cover image for Everyone hurts – the problem with ‘fixing’ streaming

Mark Mulligan

6 Feb 2023

Streaming Royalties

Streaming economics

Streaming Music

Everyone hurts – the problem with ‘fixing’ streaming Apple’s Q4 2022 revenue fall was further illustration that the global economic environment is affecting everyone. During such times, companies look for ways to avoid the worst of the impacts, partially through ‘efficiencies’ but also through growth, by exploring new income streams and improving deal terms.

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Changing streaming’s royalty model will unlock a new music economy

Cover image for Changing streaming’s royalty model will unlock a new music economy

Kriss Thakrar

12 Jul 2022

Music streaming

Streaming Royalties

It has been an excellent year for the music industry as it enters a new era of growth . While streaming has been at the heart of this growth, there is an underlying tension between platforms and the artists that they depend on.

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Spotify’s Loud and Clear is about fandom, not royalties

Cover image for Spotify’s Loud and Clear is about fandom, not royalties

Tatiana Cirisano

24 Mar 2022

Streaming Music

Streaming Royalties

Spotify has updated its Loud & Clear website exploring how it pays royalties to rightsholders, and it claims that more artists are earning income on the platform than ever before. Many in the music industry will spend today picking apart these claims, and they will be right to do so.

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Streaming’s remuneration model cannot be ‘fixed’

Cover image for Streaming’s remuneration model cannot be ‘fixed’

Mark Mulligan

12 Aug 2020

The #brokenrecord debate continues to build momentum and new models such as user-centric are getting increased attention, including at governmental level in the UK. But as Mat Dryhurst correctly observes , there is a risk of the market falling into streaming fatalism; that the obsession with trying to fix a model that might not be fixable distracts us from focusing on trying to build alternative futures.

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Time to stop playing the velocity game

Cover image for Time to stop playing the velocity game

Mark Mulligan

3 Jul 2020

music marketing

We all know that streaming has transformed consumption and business models alike, but this is not a ‘now-completed’ process. Instead, it is one that continues to evolve at pace, and the dynamic of pace is the pivotal variable.

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Artists are Learning How it Feels to be a Songwriter

Cover image for Artists are Learning How it Feels to be a Songwriter

Mark Mulligan

8 Jun 2020

The ‘broken record’ streaming debate that continues to rage on is a natural consequence of the instantaneous collapse of live music revenue following lockdown. As soon as it was clear that live was going to be gone for some time , MIDiA predicted that the artist backlash against streaming royalties would be a natural, unintended consequence .

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Songwriters Aren’t Getting Paid Enough and Here’s Why

Mark Mulligan

10 Sep 2019

Music Business Worldwide recently ran a story on how Apple has proposed a standard streaming rate for songwriters, with Google and Spotify apparently resistant. Of course, Apple can afford to run Apple Music at a loss and has a strategic imperative for making it more difficult for Spotify to be profitable, so do not assume that Apple’s intentions here are wholly altruistic.

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Playlist Malfeasance Will Create a Streaming Crisis

Mark Mulligan

9 May 2019

per stream rates

Streaming economics are facing a potential crisis. The problem does not lie in the market itself; after all, in Q1 2019 streaming revenue became more than half of the recorded music business and Spotify hit 100 million subscribers.

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Creator Support: A New Take on User Centric Licensing

Cover image for Creator Support: A New Take on User Centric Licensing

Mark Mulligan

26 Apr 2019

artist streaming income

User-centric licensing (i.e. stream pay-outs based on sharing the royalty income of an individual user split across the music they listen to) has stimulated a lot of debate. I first explored the concept of user-centric licensing back in 2015 and stirred up a hornet nest, with a lot of very mixed feedback.

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Here’s How Spotify Can Fix Its Songwriter Woes (Hint: It’s All About Pricing)

Cover image for Here’s How Spotify Can Fix Its Songwriter Woes (Hint: It’s All About Pricing)

Mark Mulligan

11 Mar 2019

Copyright Royalty Board

music publishers

Songwriter royalties have always been a pain point for streaming, especially in the US where statutory rates determine much of how songwriters get paid. The current debate over Spotify, Amazon, Pandora and Google challenging the Copyright Royalty Board’s proposed 44% increase illustrates just how deeply feelings run.

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