How you’ll make money from your music on Apple MusicApple’s interactive streaming service — Apple Music — is a powerful player in the world of music streaming (2nd only to Spotify), with more than 56 million paid subscribers.
- The interactive streaming royalty for your sound recording, paid to you through your aggregator
This is the money you are paid (through your label or distributor) whenever someone streams your music on Apple Music.
- Mechanical royalties for interactive streaming, paid to you through your publisher or publishing administrator (Tunecore, Distrokid, Amuse etc)
Interactive streaming means that the listener chose exactly what they wanted to hear (as opposed to non-interactive streaming radio, where the listener cannot control the playlist).Whenever someone dials up one of your songs, Apple Music is essentially creating a virtual mechanical reproduction of that composition. If you are the songwriter or publisher, you are owed a mechanical royalty for each interactive stream.This publishing royalty will be paid to you through your publisher or publishing administrator (such as Digishare Africa).
- Performance royalties for internet radio plays, paid to you via ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and your publishing rights administrator
The launch of Apple Music focused a lot on curation. One of the pillars of the new service is Beats 1 — a 24/7 radio station streaming worldwide. In addition to Beats 1, iTunes Radio stations play a big role in Apple Music’s music discovery efforts. Every time your composition is performed on internet radio, you (as the songwriter or publisher) are owed a public performance royalty.
- Digital performance royalties for streams of sound recordings on Beats 1 and iTunes Radio, paid to you through your label or aggregator
As mentioned above, non-interactive streaming occurs when a listener cannot choose precisely what they want to hear (think Internet radio, Pandora, etc.).
These plays generate a digital performance royalty for the usage of the sound recording. This is NOT a publishing royalty. It pertains to the recorded track, not the underlying composition.
For streams on Beats 1 and iTunes Radio, these royalties for performances of your sound recordings are paid directly to your distribution account.
