September 29, 2006
Apple and mobile firms agree on music royalties
Apple's iTunes and mobile operators including Vodafone on Thursday agreed on royalty rates to pay song writers and music publishers for digital downloads in Britain to partly resolve a dispute. Reuters reports.
Under terms of the deal, Apple Computer Inc. and four mobile operators will pay 8 percent of gross revenue, excluding VAT, for all music sold digitally excluding ringtones. A lower 6.5 percent rate was agreed for non-on-demand services such as streaming.
The deal was announced in a joint statement by the trade group representing record labels, BPI, and MCPS-PRS Alliance, which fixes and collects royalties on behalf of the composers, song writers and music publishers.
Mobile operators O2, France Telecom's Orange and Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile are also part of the agreement.
Under a previous deal, the law stated that the song writers and publishers must receive 12 percent but for the last four years this had been temporarily reduced to eight percent. Thursday's ruling made that reduction permanent."
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