Songwriters Will Get Paid More for Streaming Royalties Starting Today

The rise of streaming has no doubt shaken up the music industry. Suddenly, anyone with a cellphone has all of recorded history at their fingertips. For songwriters, however, this has come at a price. Large streaming platforms like Spotify have faced pushbacks from writers, many of whom boycotted the company’s Grammy party last year due to issues with their royalty policy.

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Back in 2022, the U.S. Copyright Board approved a plan to gradually increase royalties for over the next five years until it tops out at 15.35 percent in 2027. As of Jan. 1, 2026, songwriters and music publishers will receive a rate of 15.3 percent of a U.S. streaming service’s revenue. This is up 0.75 percent from last year’s rate of 15.25.

Songwriter royalty rate for streaming in the US will increase starting today, January 1, 2026. Will increase every year through 2027.

— chart data (@chartdata) January 1, 2026

One X/Twitter user praised the move, writing, “This is a good thing. Songwriters have been underpaid for streaming for too long, and this is a long-overdue correction.”

[RELATED: A Layman’s Guide to the Songwriter Streaming Revenue Fight]

How Streaming Affects Mechanical Royalties

Songwriters earn the bulk of their money through the Mechanical Royalty, which derives from the reproduction of copyrighted works in digital and physical formats. Writers receive mechanical royalties per song sold, downloaded, and streamed via “on-demand” streaming services. 

Per the latest ruling from the U.S. Copyright Royalty Judges, the statutory 2026 U.S. Mechanical Royalty Rates rise to 13.1 cents per work (up from 12.7 cents in 2025) and 2.52 cents per minute for songs longer than five minutes.

Notably, these new rates apply to vinyl, CDs, and permanent downloads, as streaming falls under a different statute.

With these new numbers, the CRB aims to keep mechanical royalties aligned with inflation, as well as soaring production and distribution costs for physical musical formats.

“Vinyl remains one of the strongest bright spots in recorded music revenue,” according to Hypebot. “These updates help ensure creators are compensated fairly as the format grows.

The mechanical royalty is only a portion of the streaming royalty. The total streaming royalty is based on the CD and vinyl era. Only 20-25% of the streaming royalty goes to songwriters and publishers. The remaining 75–80% goes to performing artists and record labels.

Featured image by Robert Michael/picture alliance via Getty Images