Last.fm Will Pay You Royalites Once You Jump Through This Flaming Hoop

“Last.fm Launches Royalty Program” makes for a great headline. Royalties, those are good, right? They certainly are, but if it’s nearly impossible to get an actual check from the now-CBS-owned streaming-music service, does that color the meaning of the headline just a bit?

The whole thing starts off so exciting. Last.fm makes money from being able to stream music, so the site intends to pass some ad revenue down to the artist. The announcement declares, “This is a big day for independent artists as it marks the first time that musicians not affiliated with a label or royalty collection agency can collect revenue direct from a free streaming music platform.” Great news, independent artists! It’s time to get paid.

So what do you have to do to get a hold of this money?

Musicians or songwriters can only collect royalty rates from Last.fm if they own all the rights to their music or videos. Songs that have been assigned or licensed to a collection society like SoundExchange or a record label that already collects royalties, as well as cover songs and songs recorded with a composer, are not eligible.

If you’re in a band, you have to get permission from all members and anyone else who contributed to the production of the track or video – including directors and actors. The band will then have to select one member who will collect and distribute payment.

So, as long as you can get in touch with that girl who played harp on your track a few years ago and the engineer who you put down as the producer who left town last year, and you and your band can agree on a representative, and you wrote the song entirely by yourself, everything should be fine. Otherwise, I guess Last.fm can just keep the money. Seems fair.

Also, what about all those songs that were streamed prior today–is anyone getting paid for those? Uh, no.

Musicians looking to cash in on existing Last.fm popularity are out of luck; royalties can only be collected based on streams that occur after the July 9 start date.

That didn’t sit well with Merlin, a group that represents more than 12,000 independent record labels. Merlin reportedly sent an e-mail to its membership Wednesday questioning the fact that Last.fm’s program “does not appear to offer any compensation for any past illegal use” of independent artists’ songs.

This is a little sad, and it’s enough to make me almost prefer when the music sites that I occasionally visit to stream a song or two have no pretense of paying the artist. At least then, the sites can take the somewhat low road of puffing up their chests and claiming it’s all to help promote the acts themselves. If it’s the right thing to do to pay acts from July 9 on, what about all the revenue Last.fm made from streaming their music in June? Or all of 2007?

Music Web Site Last.fm Launches Royalty Program [PC Magazine]