Music owners from outside the US will get around 73% of Apple Music revenue, while this number drops to 71.5% in the US, iTunes Content vice president Robert Kondrk has confirmed to Re/code. The rate was also confirmed by music labels.
It is worth noting here that Apple offers a three-month trial period, after which it will charge $10 per month for a single membership, and $15 for a family account. During that time, musicians won’t get a dime from Apple.
Apple won’t pay music owners anything for the songs that are streamed during Apple Music’s three-month trial period, a bone of contention with music labels during negotiations for the new service. But Kondrk says Apple’s payouts are a few percentage points higher than the industry standard, in part to account for the lengthy trial period; most paid subscription services offer a free one-month trial.
There is a catch, though: The payment check won’t go directly to musicians, but to the record labels that own the rights to the songs customers stream. As a result, the aforementioned 73% and 71.5% revenue sharing represents what record labels will get. The final payment musicians get depends on their individual contracts with music labels.
Apple will pay music owners a much lower fee for music streamed on Beats 1 and iTunes Radio, as this isn’t music on demand, according to Spotify spokesman Jonathan Prince.
Apple Music will launch in the US and 99 other countries on June 30, 2015. Apple’s Canadian page still says “coming soon”, so keep your fingers crossed for at least a fall launch.
