Copyright board boosts songwriters’ streaming fees

Songwriters and music publishers will receive a 44 percent increase in royalty payments from music streaming companies over the next five years, according to US copyright authorities.

The Copyright Royalty Board of the US Library of Congress issued its decision over the weekend to alter formulas for how much streaming companies, like Spotify and Pandora, must pay songwriters and the music-publishing companies selected to collect fees on behalf of artists.

Although the CRB has yet to make details of its ruling public, the National Music Publishers Association said streaming companies will be required to give 15.1 percent of their revenue to songwriters and music publishers — up from 10.5 percent.

The ruling comes after a four-month trial last year in which the NMPA and the Nashville Songwriters Association International pressed the case for music publishers and songwriters against Google, Amazon, Apple, Spotify and Pandora.

The songwriters had lobbied for a per-stream rate, as did Apple in a rare break from the ranks with other streaming companies. The current rate structure was “too complex,” the tech giant conceded.

Martin Bandier, chief executive of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, also lamented the lack of a per-stream rate but said the increases “go a long way to fairly compensate our songwriters.”

In addition, the CRB ordered that “late fees” be imposed on streaming companies that delay payments.