Details of a deal between the record labels, publishers and online music services in the US that was reached back in June have been revealed.
The deal was part of the ongoing dispute between the music industry and web firms in America regarding what royalties should be paid by digital music services - and in particular whether both a performance and mechanical royalty should be paid.
The former is normally paid by broadcasters who broadcast music, the latter by companies who make mechanical copies of songs, mostly record companies. Normally a licensee would only need one or the other, but arguably digital music services both broadcast music and make mechanical copies.
In the UK, where both kind of royalties are handled by the same collecting society - MCPS-PRS - this hasn't been much of an issue, but in the US, where different collecting societies are involved, it has.
Anyway, a deal was reached in June regarding streaming and limited download services, but the details have only just been published because they were awaiting approval by the country's Copyright Board. The mechanical royalty will be 10.5% of revenue generated by a digital music service, but minus any performance royalties already paid.
No agreement has been reached regarding proper download services, and the Copyright Board will have to form a conclusion on that based on the arguments of both music owners and the digital service providers.