As we reported last month, Apple really, really, really wants musicians to release tracks in Spatial Audio: it's giving those tracks extra weighting in search results to make them more visibility, and it hinted at increased royalty payments too. That hint is now a promise: Apple will now pay 10% higher royalties to tracks released in Spatial Audio, irrespective of how many people actually listen to them.
A new report in 9to5Mac sets out the detail. Apple will calculate royalties "based on the proportion of Spatial Available to Non-Spatial Available", so if every single track is available in Spatial Audio (ie Dolby Atmos) as well as in standard audio, Apple will pay the full 10% extra on the immersive audio tracks.
