Apple Music has developed a way to identify and pay all the individual artists involved in creating a DJ mix. Using song recognition technology through Shazam, Apple has worked out an automated way to attribute streaming royalties to the various parties involved in a song’s creation used in a mix. Apple originally acquired Shazam for $400 million in 2018.
Paying artist royalties if a DJ plays their song during a live set has always been a problem to overcome in the industry in part due to the technology needed to track the song plays as well as how much of the song was played as many times a small snippet may be used.
Apple Music has worked to establish a way to share streaming revenue between the DJs, labels, and artists whose tracks appear in the mixes. In doing so, it became the first platform to offer a continuous mix that pays a fair fee for artists whose tracks are included in the tracks.
Apple Music already hosts thousands of mixes, including collections from 2020 and 2021 Tomorrowland Digital Festivals.
Techno dj Charlotte de Witte noted in a statement provided by Apple:
“Apple Music is the first platform that offers continuous mixes where there’s a fair fee involved for the artists whose tracks are included in the mixes and for the artist making those mixes. It’s a step in the right direction where everyone gets treated fairly. I’m beyond excited to have the chance to provide online mixes again.”
At Apple Music competitor in the dj mix space Mixcloud, with pre-licenses music DJs can stream and monetize collections. MIDiA, working with Audible Magic, estimates that user-generated content using music, whether from a lip-sync Tik Tok to a dj mix on Soundcloud, could be worth a fortune in the music industry down the road.
Per Billboard, mixes will not be available for streaming until the Apple Music player recognizes at least 70% of the tracks.
The Electronic Music Association projected that in 2016 that producers lost $120 million in royalties for songs used without proper attribution.
