How Does Apple Music Pay Artists?

So, you've just used a service like Distrokid or CD Baby to get your tunes on a bunch of streaming services.

While it's not as popular as Spotify, Apple Music is the preferred streaming service for many Apple device owners.

Want to know how Apple Music pays artists that have music on its platform? Read on!

To understand how Apple Music pays artists, you need to understand PROs.

Music Performing Rights Organizations (or simply PROs) are a collection of music rights holders who keep track of who is paid and how much by their artists.

This is where royalties are distributed to all the music artists out there from all the performing rights organizations.

It is also where people go to to get music licensing from their favorite artists.

Some of the music licensing are from digital stores like Apple Music, Amazon Music, Google Play Music, Grooveshark, Deezer, Jango Music, Jukebox, Napster, Spotify, Sonos, Songbird, and TuneCore.

There are a few companies who own music rights organizations.

There are a lot of people who do not know about PROs, which is an issue when it comes to music licensing. So to help you get more information about ASCAP and other performing rights organizations, here are some of the important things to know:

How does a PROs Work?

Before you can understand how ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and PROs work, you need to understand how music licensing work in general.

The standard process for music licensing is that when an artist has a song, he gets a publishing license from a music company.

The song has to be professionally recorded, and it has to be played in public for at least 2 years before the song can be copyrighted.

Then if you want to distribute the music or record a version of the song, you need to go through a music company. They will then release the music license rights to an artist, with the rights to license, reuse or distribute the song.

Some of the other things you have to do in the process is the payment of performance fees to the music publishers of the song. A royalty is paid every time the song is played.

There are a lot of other stuff which goes on in the process, so check out here to learn more about it.

ASCAP

ASCAP is the biggest performing rights organization in the music world, and it is the largest performing rights organization for songwriters.

Its headquarters are in New York, USA. They are one of the biggest performing rights organization in the world.

ASCAP was formed in 1917 when it merged three separate performing rights organizations. It’s very first President was Harry Von Tilzer.

It is the parent organization of the following performing rights organizations:

BMI

BMI is a performing rights organization that was founded in 1914 and started out as a pooling society, that helps people pay for music licensing.

In 1951, BMI and ASCAP merged and the name was changed to ASCAP-BMI. It is now one of the two music performance rights organizations that share the same acronym.

BMI currently collects royalties for more than 25,000 songwriters and publishers and distributes these royalties to more than 600,000 artists and rights owners.

Songwriters and publishers at BMI include John Lennon, Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Springsteen, Johnny Cash, Dire Straits, Billy Joel, Barry Manilow, Lady Gaga, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Willie Nelson, Eminem, Carly Simon, Art Garfunkel, Frank Sinatra, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

BMI has over 120,000 members, and their numbers are increasing every year.

PROs are formed on the basis of members that already have licenses to all the songs, and the following percentage is paid by them.

What do you get paid by Apple?

Every time you listen to a song, that is counted as a "play" as far as Apple Music is concerned.

The amount of money that Apple Music pays us is not based on how many songs I write, perform, or produce.

It’s based on the number of streams. This is why I’ve made a map showing the number of streams to individual songs.

This is also why we have a support section where we explain how the money is calculated.

To me this payment is a huge step towards the current streaming music model, even if there isn't a ton of money in it right now.

Back in the day

In the old days artists would get paid for their music based on downloads.

Artists would get paid in cents on the dollar. Artists would be free to sell their music on any music site they want.

Apple’s way of paying artists is, in my opinion, the future of streaming music. You have the most popular artists in the world as a service that pays artists a flat rate every month.

However, I know that there are a lot of you out there, especially the ones who are considering signing with an agent and going the traditional route, who may have some questions about this payment.

It's tough going, but will get better

First of all, we only make a few dollars from a lot of streams. We’ve all experienced this when you make a song and it only gets a few plays in a short amount of time.

I’m not saying don’t release your music on a platform or don’t try and get popular. I’m saying that if you’re going to do this you need to be smart with your finances.

You have to make sure that you can feed your family, pay rent, buy food, etc. If you can’t live off your music I strongly advise you not to do this.

This is where the “Mac Powered” part comes into play. For me, this is a creative outlet. I have a feeling that most of you artists feel this way.

You make music for you, your family, your friends, your fans, and yourself. You have to make sure that your family is well fed, your home is well heated, and that you have everything you need.

The other side of it is that the world wants great music. It’s frustrating to me that I don’t get more attention than I do. I know the music I create is great and I can tell you why. I can also tell you why the song doesn’t get the listenership that it should.

Some tough questions (and answers)

From this I’m sure you can see that Apple Music has set up some really great incentives for me and other artists, even if the gross payout isn't massive.

Apple doesn’t want to pay us tons of money. It's tough to say aloud, but it's the truth.

I can’t speak for other artist, but I can tell you I’d love to be rich. But, for me, this is just another business venture.