Rdio To Pay Artists $10 For Each Subscriber

One of the biggest cost centers for streaming audio providers is royalties paid to artists and music publishers. Music streaming company Rdio has announced a plan that will see it pay musicians a significant amount of money for each new subscriber the artist brings to the streaming service. Rdio launched an Artist Program this week that will pay musicians as much as $10 per subscriber.

Looking a little closer at the Artist Program, it appears to be aimed at independent musicians who are into self-promotion. Participating artists can use social media to share songs of their own creation or from other artists via links. The song links are trackable and can be embedded via social media and elsewhere. Each new subscriber created by clicking these embeddable links will get the artist $10.

Rdio says that it will provide participating artists with a dashboard showing real-time stats on where and how they're getting their fans to sign up for the service. Rdio is specific in that the new Artist Program will not replace the existing royalty arrangements it has with music labels and artists. This new Artist Program is a complement to its existing arrangements.

Artists who have a popular and loyal social media following could rack up a decent amount of money with this new program. Specific requirements an artist needs to meet to be allowed to participate in the Artist Program are unknown.

"There is no art without artists," said Rdio's founder Janus Friis. "As part of this industry, we know a business that doesn't reward its most important contributors is a business that has to change. The innovation of the Internet should not be a barrier to the success of music artists; it should allow them to be even more successful."

[via Fast Company]