SAG-AFTRA, Major Labels Reach Agreement on New Royalties Deal Expanding Payments Based on Streaming

SAG-AFTRA officials reached a tentative three-year successor recording royalties deal Thursday with five major record labels. It includes a “groundbreaking payment formula for online streaming and non-permanent digital downloads that encompasses revenue from these types of exploitations generated outside the” U.S., the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the labels said. The deal with the five labels -- Capitol Records, Hollywood Records, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and affiliates of Warner Music Group -- “is a significant expansion of the obligations the industry undertook in a deal originally struck in 1994, and it represents the first time the labels have included revenue generated outside the United States in any payment streams under the union's contract,” SAG-AFTRA and the labels said. All parties to the proposed deal “recognize the need for change in order to deal with the challenges and opportunities presented by new economic models in the industry,” SAG-AFTRA National Vice President-Recording Artists Dan Navarro said in a news release. “This deal starts us down that road.” SAG-AFTRA members will now need to ratify the deal.