Music Publishing News Roundup 8.10.15: Kobalt’s AMRA Makes Apple Deal, Apple Music Extends AU Free Trial
Kobalt’s collection society AMRA has entered a deal with Apple Music in the form of its first worldwide digital licensing deal. AMRA, which represents more than 500 independent publishing companies, will be collecting songwriter and publisher royalties straight from Apple Music, which has access to over 100 countries.
Reportedly, AMRA’s “landmark” license agreement with Apple is “the first of a set” of such global deals.
Beatport’s royalty payments to labels will be delayed due to SFX’s “going private” process. In a letter to labels, Beatport, which newly landed an exclusive content partnership with Spotify, claims its parent company SFX’s progression into “going private” has “trapped certain earned label payments” for this last quarter. This delay has the potential to cause a cash flow problem for smaller labels, including some dance labels for which Beatport is the source of 90% of digital income. UPDATE: Beatport says it will resume payments.
Apple Music is extending it’s free trial to 12 months in Australia under the condition that users switch mobile network providers. Australian mobile network Telstra is the home of the new full year free trial for users who enter 12- or 24-month Go Mobile Plans exclusively for the iPhone 6. Bringing in a larger Australian market, these Telstra users may even be able to get 15 months of free service from Apple Music by using up the standard 3 month free trial first.
