Copyright Review Board Increases Royalty Rate for Pandora and Other Streaming Services

Digital streaming services like Pandora will have to pay a little more to bring customers music next year after a highly anticipated ruling from the Copyright Royalty Board. The board recently held that internet radio services would have to pay record labels a royalty of 17 cents per 100 plays of a song in 2016, up from 14 cents per 100 plays this year. The increase is less than the 25 cents some digital rights advocates had hoped for, but it was more than Pandora had asked for as well. The streaming service had actually asked for a decrease. The royalty board typically makes the changes every five years, but after this increase, it reserved the right to change rates more frequently and more accurately reflect the consumer price index.

How will the rates affect subscribing users? Read more about Pandora.

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In addition to Thriving Attorney, Darin M. Klemchuk is founder of Klemchuk LLP, a litigation, intellectual property, and transactional law firm located in Dallas, Texas.  He also co-founded Project K, a charity devoted to changing the world one random act of kindness at a time.  Click to read more about Darin Klemchuk's practice as an intellectual property lawyer.