[DS Notes] How Much Is Apple Paying Music Labels for iTunes Radio?

We discussed a bit about music licensing fees on Monday specifically when it comes to digital playback. As it happens, the Wall Street Journal revealed the licensing structure that Apple has to pay for songs played through iTunes Radio and to nobody’s surprise, it’s not entirely straightforward. Apple pays US$0.13 per song played plus 15% of net advertising revenue on year one and it goes up to $0.14 and 19% on year two, but there are other qualifiers that will alter the final figures such as not having to pay royalty fees when the played songs are already in the person’s library or when it’s a promoted track, or when the song gets skipped before it reaches 20 seconds. But then Apple is only allowed to skip royalties for two songs per person per hour. Got that? Don’t forget, iTunes Radio is also designed to get people to buy more songs from iTunes.