Apple Music Increases Royalties to Artists by 10% for Spatial Audio Music

Apple Music is now offering 10% higher royalties to artists who are willing to create their music available in Spatial Audio.

The Spatial Audio is an exclusive immersive sound experience for users of AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, and other headphones.

Apple Music Promotes Spatial Audio to Artists

Starting this January payout, artists who have made their music with a spatial version will receive 10% more in their per-play royalties. On the other hand, users do not have necessarily to listen to Spatial Audio before the artist gets awarded the bonus payout.

According to Apple, the number of listeners of Spatial Audio has tripled over the last two years. In addition, over 90% of Apple Music subscribers have tried the feature.

The computation is based on the proportion of Spatial Available to Non-Spatial Available plays. This means that artists who offer spatial audio to all of their music will receive the 10% royalty bonus even if no one listened to the version.

"As our technologies continue to evolve to allow artists everywhere to make higher-quality content than ever, we believe artists should be properly rewarded for it," Apple Music shared with Rolling Stone.

Apple Ensures Artists are Compensated With Spatial Audio

Spatial Audio was first introduced to Apple Music in 2021 as part of the partnership with Dolby Atmos. Since then, Apple has been pushing the feature to its subscribers, encouraging them to experience surround sound while using AirPods and such.

"This change is not only meant to reward higher quality content but also to ensure that artists are being compensated for the time and investment they put into mixing in Spatial," Apple added.

The new incentive program is expected to boost the adoption of Spatial Audio in the Apple Music catalog. As of writing, Apple revealed that Spatial Available music has increased by 5000% since its launch.