Clear Channel Is Paying Radio Royalties To Artists! (If You're On The Right Label)
posted in: Country • Music News • Pop • Rock
Clear Channel looks its taking it upon itself to change how royalties are paid to artists played on the radio. On Thursday the media conglomerate announced that it had struck a deal with Glassnote Entertainment Group that would provide income to the label and their roster of artists for broadcasts of their music through terrestrial and online streaming Clear Channel stations.
While many of the nitty gritty details of the deal remain undisclosed, there are two big takeaways. First, Clear Channel would payout a percentage of their revenue to Glassnote, home of top selling folk-rock act Mumford & Sons and indie darlings including Phoenix and Two Door Cinema Club, for over the air broadcasts of their artist’s music. This stands in stark contrast to the history of radio royalties in the United States.
Radio broadcasters are only required to pay royalties to the composer and the publisher of a song for terrestrial broadcasts. By contrast, the DMCA requires that performance royalties be paid for streaming online radio. Second, the payout for online streams would change from fractions of a penny per play to a percentage based on online advertising revenue.
This isn’t the first of these deals that Clear Channel has struck. Big Machine, that bastion of big country which counts Tim McGraw and Taylor Swift amongst its roster, and Clear Channel came to an agreement regarding radio royalties back in June. Which other labels will enter into agreements with Clear Channel isn’t clear at this time.
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