SOUNDEXCHANGE NEARS $1B IN COLLECTIONS

SoundExchange has released its annual financial report for 2015, which revealed it collected $845m last year from satellite and Internet radio, an increase of$ 91m, up 12% over royalty collections in 2014. The entity has collected more than $3.5 billion since its inception.

While Pandora is a major contributor to the total collected, industry watchers note that a recent analysis overstated the streaming-radio giant's piece of the puzzle. This is due in large part, these observers say, to the inclusion of Pandora's payment for pre-1972 content as part of its total reported content costs.

Webcasting is in a growth period now, and royalty collections should spike in 2016 due to the higher rates that webcasters will be paying as a result of the CRB ruling in December.

In 2015, streaming surpassed downloads and physical sales for the first time as the largest component of revenue for the U.S. record industry.