The issues streaming services face in regard to the fair attribution of music to rights holders and appropriate revenue distribution have been well-documented. There may be new possibilities on the horizon, though.
Having purchased Shazam, a smartphone app focused on music recognition, Apple Music announced in September that it would begin identifying songs in DJ mixes in order to pass royalties on to all involved; mixes made by common users are still off the radar for now.
The platform was already carving a different path to its competitors regarding its remuneration structure. While the company pays $0.01 per play, other names in the industry, like Spotify, continue to pay only fractions of a cent.
To trace future trends is a difficult task. Apple Music may be playing a pioneering role in proposing these new dynamics for Streaming platforms, after all, the mechanism used by Shazam can be replicated by the rest of the industry. But will these other companies have any interest or feel any obligation to do so? It is certainly an expectation of rights holders. We will have to wait and see.
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