• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, December 8, 2016

Record labels might be thinking their TV industry brethren have it too good: ever-higher revenues, even with declining TV viewership on many traditional networks/platforms. And the revenues here coming from higher advertising revenue and carriage fees.

But surprise. The music business is essentially turning into one big cable network, getting money from digital media services by way of advertising revenues and subscription fees -- YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music to name a few.

You would think music industry executives would be happy. That this money has now surpassed the digital and physical sales business. Streaming music now makes up the majority of the music industry’s revenues.

YouTube said it recently paid out $1 billion in fees to the music labels -- which comes from advertising. Spotify says it paid out $1.8 billion -- this from a combination of advertising and some subscription fees.

But music executives are not happy. Because they think they don’t get enough of those fees -- especially concerning consumer activity when it comes to music.

Music industry executives say growth in ad-supported music streams is not keeping pace with revenue.

For example, the number of ad-supported music streams rose 101% in 2015 over the year before. But revenue? There was only a 31% hike.

In this regard, the music industry is akin to the TV network business. It wants to get paid for every piece of music streamed by the consumer, just as TV networks grouse they don’t get paid for every TV viewer of their shows.

The TV industry believes there is advertising money still left on the table -- and especially outside of the three day-time shifting period, C3 -- or even the seven-day window, C7 -- the metrics TV advertisers use to make TV media deals. Additionally, TV network/producers complain they are not getting all viewing credit on on digital media sites.

Like TV, the music business takes comfort in the fact that it is “content” -- and content continues to be king. Wonder then when the kingdom will issue a new tax hike to pay the royalty.