One of the statistics that stood out to me in this piece was that “performance rights income increased in value by an estimated 9.2% in 2012 and now accounts for around 6% of overall industry revenues, up from 3% in 2007.” This increase is directly related to the growth of digital streaming platforms both into new markets (the piece states that streaming platforms are in 100 countries compared to 23 countries the year before) as well as the increase in users (paid and unpaid).

Pandora, Rdio, Mog, Spotify, iTunes Radio, etc. all pay a micro-penny statutory rate to SoundExchange and a negotiated royalty rate (either based on percentage of revenue or usage-based) to ASCAP/BMI/SESAC for digital public performance. They pay similarily to foreign PROs as well.  Read More…