Apple will pay an additional fee starting this month to artists if they have a spatial audio version on Apple Music, according to the British Daily Mail. several Reports.
The company will pay up to 10% additional royalties if an artist records all of their songs with spatial audio, according to a report by 9to5Mac. But the extra money doesn’t depend on users playing the spatial audio version.
In a note sent to the artists (trans Music acts around the world), the additional money is calculated by the ratio of available spatial release and available non-spatial release.
“Pro rata shares for available spatial runs will be calculated using a factor of 1.1 while non-spatial available runs will continue to use a factor of 1,” the memo said. “This change is intended not only to reward high-quality content, but also to ensure that artists are compensated for the time and investment they put into spatial mixing.”
The note also stated that since Apple launched spatial audio in 2021, there has been a 5,000% increase in songs available in this format without specifying exact numbers.
in December, Bloomberg It was reported that Apple is planning to offer incentives to artists to add songs to Apple Music mixed with Dolby Atmos.
Apple Music’s competitors, including Amazon Prime Music, Tidal, and Deezer, also offer spatial offerings. While Spotify has been talking about launching a Hi-Fi layer for a few years now, it has yet to officially launch.
Apple’s announcement comes at a time when the European Union is pushing for rules to ensure a better distribution of revenues to artists from music streaming services. The company did not immediately comment on the story.
Last year, Spotify changed its royalty rules to make only songs with more than 1,000 streams in the last 12 months eligible for damages.