Indie Labels Upset with Apple Music's Spatial Audio Royalty Structure
Indie labels are unhappy with Apple Music's decision to offer higher royalties to artists who release spatial audio tracks, arguing that it will divert potential earnings to larger companies and take money away from them. The increased royalties come from the same fixed pool of money used to pay artists who do not offer the format, and the production costs for spatial audio are significantly higher. Executives from indie labels representing artists such as Vampire Weekend and Phoebe Bridgers are concerned about the impact on their revenues and plan to discuss the issue with Apple.