Clear Channel Inks Radio Royalties Deal With Mumford & Sons' Label

Clear Channel has signed its second deal with an independent record label, teaming up with Glassnote Entertainment Group to pay out digital and terrestrial revenues to the label and its artists.

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The partnership comes on the heels of the radio giant's agreement with the Big Machine Label Group back in June, which paid Big Machine sound recording performance royalties, as well as a percentage of both digital and terrestrial advertising revenue, which had previously only existed digitally. Clear Channel confirmed to Billboard.biz that the deal with Glassnote followed along those same lines.

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Glassnote's artists include Mumford & Sons, Phoenix, GIVERS, Childish Gambino, and Two Door Cinema Club, among others.

"We built Glassnote to be a next-generation music company that embraces change, including evolving technologies," said Glassnote founder/CEO Daniel Glass in a statement. "One of our passions is aggressively finding new and innovative ways to make our artists' music and information more available than ever to their fans. It is no secret of our respect and love for radio. This partnership aligns our business interests more closely with Clear Channel, and we're excited about being part of the drive to grow digital radio faster and bring all of its benefits to music fans."

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The digital-only legislatively-mandated sound recording royalty currently paid to artists and labels is set at $0.002 per play for 2012. The deals with both Big Machine and Glassnote set a specific, albeit undisclosed, percentage based on advertising revenue that is to be paid to the label, rather than on a per-play basis. Terrestrial radio still accounts for 98% of U.S. radio's music advertising revenue.

"Not only will this agreement expand [Glass'] label and artists' participation in all of Clear Channel's radio revenues; it also creates a vibrant new digital radio business model that we believe will provide more money for the artists and the labels and more digital choices for the consumer," said Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman in the press release.

Twitter: @billboardbiz