Apple Pay to deliver 71.5%+ split to music owners


Peter Kafka:

In the U.S., Apple will pay music owners 71.5 percent of Apple Music's subscription revenue. Outside the U.S., the number will fluctuate, but will average around 73 percent, he told Re/code in an interview. Executives at labels Apple is working with confirmed the figures.

Those totals include payments to the people who own the sound recordings Apple Music will play, as well as the people who own the publishing rights to songs' underlying compositions. That doesn't mean the money will necessarily go to the musicians who recorded or wrote the songs, since their payouts are governed by often-byzantine contracts with music labels and publishers.

A little interesting, Apple got the labels to agree to take no payments during Apple Music's free extended 3 month trial. Other than that, payments are about the standard 70/30 split with content providers.