When the labels went to the various artists who held the publishing rights to the songs the royalty rates that the artists were offered were absurdly low compared to what the artists normally received from non-digital plays. What happened was that the digital services went to the labels to negotiate the rights to play the recorded versions everyone knows and loves since the labels owned the sync rights, and in the process a certain set of royalty rates was agreed upon with the digital services. What they often don't own are the synchronization rights (normally the label owns these) to a given particular recording of the song, and for that particular recording to be used the label (or whoever owns the sync rights) has to sign off on it. The owner of the publishing rights (normally the artist) has a right to royalties for every time any version of a song they have rights to gets streamed, just like they do if a song gets played on the radio, and as such have to sign off on the contract allowing the songs to be used by a digital service. When it comes time to negotiate the contract to use the songs on a digital service, weirdness can happen because of this.
#STRANGER THINGS 3 SOUNDTRACK TV#
In most 70s and 80s record contracts the publishing rights (which receive royalties based on sales of sheet music, performances of the song by any artist, and things like radio and tv airplay) normally went to the artist while the synchronization royalty (which applies to the particular recording of a song, such as the exact version of "Rock You Like A Hurricane" heard on "Love At First Sting") normally went to the record label.
![stranger things 3 soundtrack stranger things 3 soundtrack](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71uxjUrzViL._SL1500_.jpg)
It's actually an interesting story and involves the weirdness of record label contracts from the past combining with modern tactics by the record labels.