Apple will pay additional royalties starting this month to artists if they have a spatial audio version on Apple Music, according to multiple References.
The company will pay up to 10% more royalties if an artist has all their songs in spatial audio, according to a report from 9 to 5 Mac. However, the extra money is not dependent on users playing the spatial audio version.
In a note sent to artists (via Music Business Worldwide), the additional money is calculated through a ratio of the Spatial available version and the non-spatial available version.
“Prorated shares for spatially available games will be calculated at a factor of 1.1 while non-spatially available games will continue to use a factor of 1,” the note said. “This change is not only intended to reward higher quality content but also to ensure that artists are compensated for the time and investment they put into mixing in Spatial.”
The note also said that since Apple launched Spatial Audio in 2021, there has been a 5,000% increase in songs available in this format without specifying exact numbers.
In December, Bloomberg reported that Apple planned to incentivize artists to add songs to Apple Music that are mixed in Dolby Atmos.
Apple Music’s competitors, including Amazon Prime Music, Tidal and Deezer offer regional deals. While Spotify has talked about releasing a Hi-Fi layer for a few years now, it has yet to officially launch.
Apple’s announcement comes as the EU pushes for rules to ensure a better distribution of revenue to artists from music streaming services. The company did not immediately comment on the story.
Last year, Spotify changed its royalty rules so that only songs with more than 1,000 streams in the past 12 months qualify.
