Friday, June 28, 2013

Report: iTunes Radio Looks To Build Indie Cred

Apple already hooked the big-three music labels for its new iTunes Radio service, but now it's looking to bolster its indie cred.

According to a story at pcmag.com, the company has reportedly been sharing details with independent record labels about the royalties it will pay to major labels for iTunes Radio, and those rates are more than what rival Pandora pays to stream songs on its service.

During the first year of iTunes Radio, Apple will pay 13 cents each time a song is played, plus 15 percent of net advertising revenue, according to the Journal, which reviewed Cupertino's terms. That amount gets a boost in year two, rising to 14 cents per listen, plus 19 percent of ad revenue.

Pandora, meanwhile, pays out 12 cents per listen on its Internet radio service, which currently boasts more than 70 million listeners, as well as a library of more than 100,000 different artists.

But Apple does not pay for performances of songs already in listeners' iTunes libraries or those on an album the user already owns part of. Those tracks selected for special promotions also come royalty-free, the Journal said, and Cupertino will get away without paying for songs that listeners skip in the first 20 seconds — applicable only to two songs per hour for any given user.

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