Apple’s new plan to pay higher royalties to artists offering spatial audio has angered some indie labels, who argue that the potential revenue will go in favor of companies with more resources at their disposal. . Apple started offering it last month To artists releasing spatial audio tracks on Apple Music. But it comes out of the same fixed pool of money used to pay artists who don’t offer the format.
Surround sound is produced using Dolby Atmos technology, according to executives speaking with it FT, costing about $1,000 more per song. An entire album will cost about 10 times as much – now multiply that to account for the hundreds or thousands of albums a label may have in its back catalogue. The Financial Times Vampire Weekend spoke with executives from Beggars Group, Secretly and Partisan Records, which includes labels representing artists including Phoebe Bridgers and others.
An executive said FT“If [this policy] takes 5-10 percent of your global revenue and we’re definitely worried that you’re losing that money and going to Universal, which is the biggest player in the market, not even because the songs aren’t being played. It’s hard enough to make money from streaming.” They plan to do this with Apple in hopes of getting a better deal.
