Digital Audio Insider

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Digital Audio Insider is David Harrell's blog about the economics of digital music.

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Thursday, December 13, 2007

More eMusic Payouts: Different Per-Song Amounts

Another small batch of eMusic sales, for the third quarter of 2007, showed up in our CD Baby account. Interesting, we were paid -- before CD Baby takes its 9% cut -- approximately 33 cents for some downloads and 25.5 cents for others.

My guess is that the smaller amount is for downloads within the U.S. and the larger payment is for downloads from eMusic subscribers in the U.K. and/or Europe. Which makes sense, as eMusic charges non-US subscribers more, in addition to a 17% value-added tax that is built into the subscription prices. (See this Swindleeeee post for more details about international eMusic subscription rates.)

One other difference between U.S. and U.K./Europe downloads is that eMusic doesn't withhold mechanical royalties for the U.S. That is, payments from eMusic to labels and artists "include" the mechanical royalty, currently 9.1 cents for recordings less than five minutes and 12 seconds in duration.

For the U.K. and Europe, eMusic makes a separate payment to Buma/Stemra for the mechanical royalty for each download. I don't know the statutory rates for mechanical royalties outside of the U.S., but if they're approximately equal to U.S. rates, the total compensation for a European eMusic download approaches or exceeds 40 cents a track.

See More On eMusic Payouts for additional information on how eMusic shares subscription revenue with labels.

tags: digital music eMusic mechanical royalties

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The Layaways

"The Layaways make fine indie pop. Hushed vocals interweave with understated buzzing guitars. The whole LP is a revelation from the start." -- Lost Music

"A wonderfully crafted recording built around tasteful songwriting and musicianship..." -- PopMatters

Silence - free mp3
The Long Night - free mp3

Download from eMusic, Amazon MP3, or iTunes, listen to free streams at Last.fm, Napster, or Rhapsody.

"These are songs that you want to take home with you, curl up with, hold them close -- and pray that they are still with you when you wake up." -- The Big Takeover

Let Me In - free mp3
Ocean Blue - free mp3

Download from eMusic, Amazon MP3, or iTunes, listen to free streams at Last.fm, Napster, or Rhapsody.

More Layaways downloads:

the layaways website

Current/Recent Reading and Listening:

Music Supervision: The Complete Guide to Selecting Music for Movies, TV, Games and New Media by Ramsay Adams, David Hnatiuk, and David Weiss

It's written as a how-to guide for those looking to become music supervisors, but I found it to be a good resource for musicians (like me) who are trying to get their music used in movies, TV, etc.