BUNNY BITES AT APPLE DEAL
By all accounts, the terms of the deal are precedent-setting and represent a significant move forward for rights holders, especially songwriters, seeking meaningful compensation from streaming.
The Financial Times reports Apple promised songwriters 10% of advertising revenue, compared to the 4% generally paid by Pandora, the streaming-radio service with which iRadio would primarily be competing. Previously, Apple was reported to be offering less of a taste than Pandora.
Given that Apple clearly hopes to debut iRadio at its 6/10 Worldwide Developers Conference, the incentive to close the remaining majors quickly is obvious.
FT reports that Marty Bandier's Sony ATV, which, along with label-group sister Sony Music, has been a holdout, is inclined to agree to the terms provided it can re-negotiate after an initial period. The paper cites a "spokesman" who says Sony is "optimistic Apple will accept our introductory rate."
As stories have circulated of top songwriters receiving payments in the low three figures for millions of streams, Bandier has been particularly outspoken (as in this recent HITS Q&A) about the necessity of negotiating better streaming rates, and recently got Pandora to sweeten its terms.
What's more, CNET's Paul Sloan adds that Apple has assured labels it will build out its advertising biz--and may begin including audio ads like Pandora's. And since iRadio will be tied to iTunes, which has about 500 million users to Pandora's roughly 70m, that's starting to look like a nice chunk of change. It's said that iRadio will offer features like the ability to restart a song from the beginning and to buy it as a download.
Will the remaining dominos fall in time for the Cupertino giant's upcoming nerdfest? Keep checking in with us via one of your Apple or Sony products.
