The economics of music streaming have not improved meaningfully for the majority of artists despite the industry's growth to 28 billion dollars in annual global revenue. Per-stream royalty rates remain between 0.003 and 0.005 dollars across major platforms, a rate that has not increased proportionately with platform growth because the percentage of revenue distributed to rights holders rather than platforms has remained essentially constant.
Music unions including the American Federation of Musicians are pushing for legislation that would require streaming services to pay minimum royalty rates that reflect a more equitable share of streaming revenue. Several countries including the UK and France are considering or have implemented regulations addressing streaming compensation, but US action requires overcoming the political influence of platform companies whose size and economic importance makes meaningful reform politically difficult.
