Music Artist Royalties

The cluster centers on debates about how little money musicians and artists receive from music sales and streams, due to royalty structures where record labels, publishers, rights holders, and middlemen take the majority of revenues.

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Keywords

investopedia.com US ASCAP BMI www.npr SACEM SABAM CD TV bond.asp music artists music industry rights royalties artist musician musicians record performers

Sample Comments

jurre Sep 6, 2012 View on HN

What you pay for albums != what the artist receives for them.

dgzl Dec 26, 2018 View on HN

The artist isn't making that money, the rights holder is. Who knows how many hands see that money before the artist does.

gvjddbnvdrbv Sep 3, 2020 View on HN

Reputable musicians will pay the royalities anyway...

Griffinsauce Nov 28, 2016 View on HN

No thanks, one likes earning a few cents from their published music.

DrJokepu Sep 2, 2009 View on HN

There are two kinds of rights when it comes to paying royalties for music: performing rights and mechanical rights. Performing rights are most commonly owned by the composer or the publisher and mechanical rights are usually owned by the publisher and the record label. Note that the performer doesn't own any of these rights. Unfortunately, performers (or "bands") are not entitled for compensation based on record sales, unless the deal they signed with their publisher or record label specifically

dillondoyle Apr 24, 2021 View on HN

Music industry seems to work like that, set in stone % shared royalties based on your role/ownership

micromacrofoot Sep 5, 2025 View on HN

indeed - record company exec salaries don't come out of the ether, that's money that could otherwise go in the artists' pockets

MichaelCrawford Jun 25, 2015 View on HN

how much will the actual artists get?

MomoXenosaga Mar 16, 2021 View on HN

Well musicians do voluntarily sign the contracts with major labels. And they do get payed for it.https://www.npr.org/2020/12/07/943818966/bob-dylan-sells-son...

JJMcJ Jul 31, 2020 View on HN

This is more a reflection of the royalty structure for recorded music than anything else.