This past Saturday was a victory for artists of every genre all across the nation The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) is a federal organization made up of three judges that determine rates and terms for copyright licenses and the royalties associated with these licenses. Well during a recent review, the current judges decided that musicians are not paid nearly enough from streaming services and decided to upgrade their payout rate from a 10.5% to 15.1% portion of the profits. This ruling also came with mechanisms in place to penalize streaming fees for paying artists and publishers late.
While this is insane progress for musicians all across the country that have to depend on streaming sites such as Spotify, Pandora and Apple Music to get their art to the masses, there is still much work to do. Labels still profit around $4 for every $1 artists make and attempts to decrease the pay gap are still pending from organizations like the NMPA (National Music Publishers Association) petitioning the CRB for greater rights to benefits to artists. Whether these motions from the NMPA might see some success, only time may tell.
