Artist royalties from music played on social media platforms on the rise

The money that artists receive when their tracks get played on social media platforms just hit a record high.

In 2018 £746 million was paid out a rise of 4% in 2017. Performing Right Society for music, which collects the royalties for artists, counted songs used on Facebook and Instagram Stories for the first time, reported BBC.

However according to singer-songwriter Ruth-Anne Cunningham, “a lot of songwriters are making less than minimum wage”. Ruth-Anne, who’s worked with Avicii, JoJo and John Legend, says “it’s great everything is starting to get monetized” but adds, “unless you have a top 40 radio hit you don’t make a substantial income”.

The boss of Performing Right Society says the rise of streaming has made it harder for them to monitor what’s being played and agrees that those trying to earn a living from music are losing out.

PRS doesn’t have exact figures on how much money comes directly from music being played on Facebook and Instagram, but it says tracks being played online now make £146m a year, up nearly 20% on the year before.

Robert says that with more and more streams, and songs seemingly having a shorter shelf life, more money “gravitates to the top”.

“We have 135,000 members, and somewhere around 25,000 out of them make a real living out of songwriting.

“In the old days, if you sold a CD or a song on a CD you got money now, of course, you actually have to have people actually listen to your song.

“The subscription services are the ones that actually pay, but you pay a flat fee per month so you can listen as much as you like. The more people listen, the lower the value per stream.”

There are still places PRS doesn’t collect money from. One area that isn’t yet licensed for music use is gaming.

More Sauce on The Sauce