Warner Music Group adopts fan-powered royalties system for Soundcloud streams

Warner Music Group has adopted SoundCloud’s Fan-Powered Royalties (FPR) system for streams.

The major label, home to the likes of David Guetta, Gorillaz, and Lizzo, is the first of its kind to sign up to the platform’s new payout system, which was introduced last April. The user-centric model distributes each listener’s subscription or advertising revenue among the artists they listen to, rather than their plays being pooled under the traditional pro-rata model that platforms like Spotify use. 

“FPR provides equitable and transparent ways for all artists, from indie darlings to international superstars, to earn money directly from their fans” SoundCloud wrote in a statement. 

“Warner Music Group is known for developing some of today’s biggest superstars and helping them build long-term careers by investing in technologies and models which grow and support their fan communities”, said SoundCloud’s president Eliah Seton.”This makes them an ideal partner for SoundCloud and we’re excited to bring our game-changing fan-driven product to their incredible roster of artists. SoundCloud is known for our community of music-loving fans and this partnership aligns with our commitment to a fan-powered, artist-centric business”.

Last September, SoundCloud claimed that Portishead’s royalty payments had gone up 500% since the new model was introduced. Find out more about SoundCloud’s FPR model here.

In other royalties news, the US Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) recently set a new royalty rate for streaming services of 15.1% to pay songwriters and publishers for 2018 to 2022.