Apple Music announces increased royalties for Spatial Audio tracks
Apple have announced that its streaming service Apple Music will offer higher royalty payments to tracks which are released with Spatial Audio.
In an announcement to its partners, Apple Music revealed, “As our technologies continue to evolve to allow artists everywhere to make higher-quality content than ever, we believe artists should be properly rewarded for it.”
The increasing pay-outs are set to commence immediately, with January’s monthly payments allowing up to a ten percent increase in royalties for tracks with Spatial Audio. Interestingly, Apple Music users do not have to actually listen to the Spatial Audio versions of tracks for the artist to receive increased payments. As long as there is a Spatial version of a certain song, the musical act is entitled to a higher payout.
The announcement comes three years after Spatial Audio was first introduced to the platform, advertised as a revolutionary step forward in the world of sound. Developed with Dolby Atmos technology, Spatial Audio feels akin to surround sound, creating a 3D listening experience.
As the Apple announcement explains, “This change is not only meant to reward higher quality content, but also to ensure that artists are being compensated for the time and investment they put into mixing in Spatial.”
At current, it is unknown just how many artists will benefit from these increased payouts. Apple has claimed that 80 per cent of tracks featured on Apple Music’s ‘Daily Top 100’ last year were released with Spatial Audio. However, there is still a huge back catalogue of music released prior to its invention which has not yet been mastered with this high quality audio format.
Apple’s push for more Spatial Audio is likely due to the platform being outperformed by rival streaming service Spotify, who do not offer any kind of high quality audio technology similar to Spatial Audio.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Music Newsletter
All the latest music news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.