Spotify Claims That It Overpaid Songwriters And Wants The Money Back
It’s not enough that songwriters and publishers make about 1/6th of what artists make per stream on Spotify, or that the company is opposing an impending songwriter royalty increase, now the company claims that it overpaid songwriters and publishers in 2018 and wants that money back.
The Copyright Royalty Board has ruled that songwriters would be getting a raise of 44% over the next 5 years, but Spotify (and every other music streaming service except for Apple Music) has appealed that decision. That said, the company is using the CRB’s decision as basis for its latest royalty claim against songwriters and publishers.
Determining streaming royalty rates is not an easy task for all but a few attorney’s deeply immersed in the process, as there are a wide variety of situations that all require unique rates. One of these is what’s known as the “family bundle” where a number of people (hopefully all from the same family) are registered under the same account for a discounted price – usually $14.99 per month.
The latest CRB decision recalculates how songwriters are paid from family plans, which is the basis for Spotify’s attempted clawback of those royalties. In other words, the service is using the same ruling it opposes to claim it overpaid songwriters.
The new CRB-approved regulations says: “A Family Plan shall be treated as 1.5 subscribers per month, prorated in the case of a Family Plan Subscription in effect for only part of a calendar month. A Student Plan shall be treated as 0.50 subscribers per month, prorated in the case of a Student Plan End User who subscribed for only part of a calendar month.â€
In the meantime, songwriters continue to suffer from generally anemic streaming rates.
