Just ahead of a congressional hearing on streaming music royalties this week, SoundExchange says it paid out $162.4 million in streaming music royalties to artists and their labels in the first quarter.
That’s a 38% increase over the same period a year ago.
In its quarterly Digital Radio Report SoundExchange says it distributed the funds among 20 million+ recipients, such as artists, songwriters and their record labels, a 17% increase in recipients from the same period a year ago.
The organization collects royalties from Internet radio, satellite radio and cable radio services.
SoundExchange payments, which come from subscription and ad-supported noninteractive streaming services, represented 8.4% of the $7 billion in U.S. recorded music industry revenue in 2013. That’s compared to 6.7% in 2012.
