Radio Facts: 
Musicnotes Surpasses $75 Million in Payments to Artists and Songwriters
Musicnotes, Inc., the world’s leading digital sheet music retailer, announced today it recently hit $75 million in royalties paid to music publishers and songwriters since the launch of www.musicnotes.com in 1999. The $75 million number takes into account compensation related to all sheet music downloads at Musicnotes.com, as well as royalties related to the www.songsterr.com guitar tab business.
“Rewarding music creators is part of our DNA at Musicnotes,” stated Musicnotes CEO Kathleen Marsh. Our business model generates healthy royalties and our market-leading database ensures our unpaid royalties are well under 1%, a performance we are proud of and will stack up against anyone in the music business.”
In fact, Musicnotes’ vision statement explicitly calls out that they “will foster the creation of music by advocating for and rewarding its creators.” Musicnotes has pioneered the fair and legal e-commerce of downloadable sheet music, was recently named to Internet Retailer’s Top 1000 List for the 14th straight year and is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its founding.
As the music industry has come under fire for drastically cutting its royalty payments to artists, Musicnotes offers a different comparison. For the song, “As Long As You Love Me” by Justin Bieber, writer Andre Lindal has a 20% ownership stake. Royalties paid by Pandora for over 38 million spins would equate to just $278, whereas 1,400 downloads of the sheet music would produce $747 for the writer.
“Revenue from sheet music, tablature and lyrics are becoming increasingly important to songwriters and music publishers,” said National Music Publishers’ Association President and CEO David Israelite. “There is tremendous value in songs, and it is important these rights are protected and monetised to their full extent. Musicnotes has established and maintained a longstanding commitment to supporting songwriters and music publishers around the globe.”
Musicnotes sold its first download in late 1999 and has now reached 40 million downloads in 2018. Songsterr joined the Musicnotes family in 2011 and offers a popular guitar tab subscription service. Both Musicnotes and Songsterr offer mobile and web-based apps to complement their respective song catalogues and enhance the experience for musicians. Learning and playing great music is at the core of both business models.
