royalties

Music Royalties Up in 2009, Expected to Be Even Higher in 2010

SoundExchange, the group in charge of collecting music royalties, payed out $155 million to artists in 2009, more than a 50 percent increase from the previous year. Royalties are earned each time a song is played on the Internet, satellite radio, or cable television. Although only an estimate at this point, the group expects to hand out at least $250 million in payments for 2010. Collecting the royalties is easy for SoundExchange; the hard part is disbursing it. At the end of last year the group had $111 million in unclaimed funds, mainly owing to an inability to locate artists. [Pop & Hiss/LAT]

Music Royalties Up in 2009, Expected to Be Even Higher in 2010