Proposed Living Wage for Musicians Act Would Increase Streaming Royalties

> Per the release, the act “would create a new streaming royalty, with the aim to compensate artists and musicians more fairly at a penny per stream when their music plays on streaming services.”

> The report goes on to say that streaming has grown to represent 84 percent of recorded music industry revenue, but that Spotify, the leading music streaming platform, only pays an average per-stream royalty of $0.003, meaning an artist must reach 800,000 monthly streams to equal a full-time $15/hour job.

> The proposed new royalty would be paid in addition to existing royalties, ensuring that artists receive at least one cent per stream with an eventual cap on the amount of possible profit per month. The additional payments would be funded via a tax on the streaming platforms’ non-subscription revenue and a small increase to the cost of music streaming subscriptions.