It looks like songwriters will finally get their due from Spotify, as the latter has agreed to pay out unmatched royalties – that is, giving out cash for songs that had their respective information missing. The well-known music streaming service has arrived at an agreement with NMPA (National Music Publishers Association) concerning unpaid royalties for music that did not carry any kind of copyright owner information, and it seems that Spotify will have to fork out somewhere in the region of $21 million.
Every single penny from the $21 million will pay for “unmatched works”, that is, songs without relevant information concerning the copyright holder attached, which have already been streamed on Spotify. Apart from that, this particular settlement would help to ease things along for song owners to identify themselves in order to obtain their dues.
This amount of dough will be shared with $16 million that is being used to pay for royalty fees to publishers and song writers. As for the balance of the $5 million, it would come under the bonus fund where songwriters and publishers are concerned.
NMPA CEO CEO David Israelite shared, “I am thrilled that through this agreement both independent and major publishers and songwriters will be able to get what is owed to them. We must continue to push digital services to properly pay for the musical works that fuel their businesses and after much work together, we have found a way for Spotify to quickly get royalties to the right people.” This is certainly in line with Spotify’s pledge to address the unclaimed royalties issue last December. [Press Release]
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