Last.fm signs artist royalty deal in the UK

Thu Feb 7 2008, 08:38 AM UTC

Last.fm has an artist-payment plan in place in the UK for its newly launched music streaming service, following a deal with the royalty collection agency, Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL). According to reports on PaidContent, the online music service and social community will pay performance royalties to the organisation for songs played on its UK web radio service. Although Last.fm is not commenting on the financial terms of the deal, it is reported that the PPL demands some GBP0.0773 (USD0.151) per stream, which in turn goes back to the artists and music labels. The move follows Last.fm's announcement last month that it had signed deals with all the major labels to launch an ad-supported listening service. At the time, it promised to give unsigned artists a cut of revenues for tracks played. Now, all artists featured on the site stand to earn royalty payments.

Deal Details

Through its music-streaming service, CBS-owned Last.fm claims it will offer some 3.5m tracks from EMI, Universal Music Group, Sony/BMG, and Warner, as well as CD Baby, IODA, the Orchard, Naxos and more than 150,000 independent labels and artists. Listeners can, however, only listen to tracks three times, after which they will be directed to Last's retail partner sites - which include Amazon and iTunes - to buy the track.

The PPL is a music industry organisation that collects and distributes airplay and public performance royalties in the UK. It claims to work on behalf of over 3,500 record companies and some 47,000 performers. Last month, internet radio rival, Pandora, announced it was cutting off its service to UK users, after claiming it was unable to obtain licences at a reasonable price from rights organisations in the UK.

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