Last week Apple filed a proposal with the Copyright Royalty Board to simplify the complicated formula used to pay songwriting royalties for streaming music, reports the New York Times. The Copyright Royalty Board is a panel of federal judges who are responsible for overseeing how those rates are set.

Apple proposes that streaming music services pay $0.091 in songwriting royalties for every 100 times a song is played. For example, Justin Timberlake would earn $91 when his latest single, “Can’t Stop the Feeling,” is played 100,000 times. This is a dramatic simplification of the current formula which varies based on the business model and whether the service is subscriber-based or ad-supported.

According to The Times, Apple said in its proposal, “An interactive stream has an inherent value, regardless of the business model a service provider chooses.”

Many artists have complained about the low songwriting royalty payments with some vocal opponents choosing where and when they will allow their music to appear. In 2014, Taylor Swift very publicly pulled her music from Spotify in 2014 in protest. Swift also publicly blasted Apple Music when it launched last summer because Apple was trying to avoid paying royalties for free trials. When Swift took to social media to share her displeasure, Apple backed down.

So why the change? According to The New York Times, Apple made its proposal to make it more expensive for its streaming music competitors like Spotify.

The New York Times’ Ben Sisario writes, “…even in this seemingly innocuous proposal, which was not made public but was obtained by The New York Times, Apple’s target is clear: Spotify, its archenemy in streaming music. The proposal would significantly raise the rates that Spotify pays, and the filing includes lines that are clearly directed at Spotify and its so-called freemium model.”

The Verge says that Apple may be able to avoid the proposed rate structure because it has made its own deals with record labels. Companies that don’t have similar deals would be subject to the royalty payments as regulated. This would be more expensive for streaming music companies who have free tiers as well as subscription options. While Tidal and Apple Music only offer paid subscriptions, Spotify and Pandora both utilize an ad-supported model which includes a free, ad-supported tier as well as subscriptions.

Apple has spoken out publicly against free music, most notably by Jimmy Iovine at last fall’s Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit in San Francisco. CNET quoted Iovine as saying that offering free, ad-supported music is like “building an audience on the back of the artists,” calling that model a “shell game.”

Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue reiterated that position last week in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter when asked where Apple stands in the music industry’s fight on digital copyright law.

“I don’t want to talk specifically to the requests, but I do know that we agree 100 percent with artists that they should have the right to decide where their content is available – whether it’s free or when it’s free, when it should be paid or how much it should cost. We’ve always, from day one, felt that this is their content and they should decide how they want to make it available,” Cue said.

It is not known when the Copyright Royalty Board would rule on the matter, but if the board accepts the proposal, the new rates would go into effect in 2018 and remain in place for five years.

Insider Take:

So far, Spotify has not spoken out specifically about this issue, but earlier this summer Spotify petitioned Congress for relief, claiming Apple was violating fair business practices by blocking updates to Spotify software in the App Store. This latest action by Apple just fueled the fire of antitrust accusations.

As the government investigates, Spotify is shifting its focus to grow its advertising revenue. In fact, this week Spotify announced the rollout of programmatic ad-buying to give advertisers the opportunity to buy real-time, highly-targeted ads to Spotify’s 70 million unpaid users (Spotify has 30 million paid subscribers). This will help Spotify boost its revenue which could help offset any future changes in royalty payments.

Spotify is unlikely to remain silent on Apple’s latest action. It will be interesting to see how the streaming music service, and others like it, will fight or support the proposed changes in songwriting royalty payments, depending on their business models and relationships with music labels.