Amazon Music Seeks Lower Songwriter Rates For 2028

The National Music Publishers' Association and the Nashville Songwriters Association International, which file jointly as the "Copyright Owners," are asking for the greatest of four amounts. Those are 20 percent of service revenue, 40 percent of total content costs, $2.40 per subscriber per month, or $0.004 per play. Their attorney, Benjamin K. Semel, and co-counsel wrote that "copyright owners contribute more, control less, and bear more of the risk." Their plan would also cap performance-royalty deductions so that mechanical royalties make up at least half of the total pool.

The songwriters' side of the case includes personal testimony. The filing features statements from five songwriters, including Trannie Anderson, who pointed to her No. 1 hits and a Grammy nomination. Anderson said that "even that level of success does not necessarily provide financial security." NMPA Chief Legal and Operating Officer Danielle Aguirre testified that "there were characterizations at the time that the settlement rates were the highest ever, but those characterizations are far from the reality as we enter into this proceeding."

NMPA President and CEO David Israelite went after Amazon directly in a video from October 15. Holding up an envelope and card with Amazon's logo, he called Amazon Music "the worst offender." He said, "They want to significantly decrease your rates across the board, in every category." Israelite also argued that Amazon, which has a reported market capitalization of $2.8 trillion and $717 billion in annual revenue, is "100x the size of the total U.S. publishing and songwriting industry." He added that the bundling approach "has cost songwriters and publishers more than $1 billion." Separately, he posted on Instagram that songwriters "should have a minimum of at least 40% of what record labels and artists get paid."

The Digital Media Association, which represents streaming services, took a more measured tone. On October 6, it said it looked forward to a "timely resolution" of the proceeding. NMPA data cited in coverage puts U.S. music publishing revenue at $7.3 billion, up from $5.6 billion in 2022.

The current fight traces back to the Phonorecords IV settlement. The services, the NMPA, and the NSAI reached that deal in August 2022, and the CRB formally accepted it in December 2022. Those rates have become the benchmark both sides keep returning to, which is why Amazon's economist went back and recalculated them.

The stakes reach beyond spreadsheets. Royalties from streaming are one of the few steady income streams for the people who write the hooks, verses, and choruses that fill playlists. Artist and songwriter advocates have been pushing back on how streaming pays for years. India Arie tied improved songwriter royalties to her decision to return her music to Spotify in 2023, after a year-long protest over those payments. That history is part of why this filing has landed so hard with the creative community.

The mechanics are complicated, but they matter. Under current rules, services first calculate a pool that covers both mechanical and performance royalties. They subtract performance payments, then check what remains against a minimum payment. The mechanical pool is then divided among songs based on how many times they were played. Every change to a percentage, a minimum, or a deduction shifts how that pool gets split between songwriters, publishers, and the platforms themselves.

What happens next is set by the board's schedule. Its October 2 order allows amended filings through December 21. The hearing is set for March 22 through April 15, 2027. Until then, both sides will keep building their cases, and songwriters will be watching closely to see whether the 2027 rates hold.