A new ruling in the European General Court on Friday will see 21 music royalty agencies in the EU now offering multi-country licensing agreements to the likes of Apple, Amazon, and Spotify, and must now allow recording artists the right to sign up to the royalties society of their choice.

As Reuters reports, the new European ruling was handed down on Friday 12th April, upholding a 2008 ruling by the European Commission to veto national monopolies, intended to allow greater choice for consumers, greater flexibility for musicians, and smoother regulations for music services looking to establish a foothold in the European continent.

Under current systems, each European country had its own royalty collecting society, such as the United Kingdom’s Performing Rights Society, each generally gathering royalty fees applicable only in their respective nations, dealing with musicians and songwriters within their respective countries. The 27-country European Union saw an average US$ 7.88 billion a year collected in royalty fees for more than a million songwriters and performers.

The country-by-country licensing regulations meant that services like Spotify, Rdio, and Apple’s iTunes for example, were forced to set up multiple versions of their service dealing with each country’s respective royalty rate society, as well as the record labels themselves.

The system had its function in the past, but critics say that it constricts emerging digital technology, such as the growing popularity of music streaming services that provide libraries of millions of tracks from all around the world. The country-by-country licensing regulations meant that services like Spotify, Rdio, and Apple’s iTunes for example, were forced to set up multiple versions of their service

It’s also the same system that Apple representatives cite as the reason for the inflated prices that Australians pay on digital music in the Government’s inquiry into IT pricing; saying it was local rights holders and record labels that were to blame for Australian consumers paying up to 50% more on digital price tags.

The European General Court ruling came after 21 royalty collecting agencies, represented by the international artist rights’ association CISAC challenged a 2008 decision by the European Commission that made it easier for music retailers to acquire multi-territorial broadcasting licenses from one body, rather than several independent national societies.

The same 2008 decision found the European Commission declaring that songwriters, musicians, and recording artists should be free to choose whichever agency they wanted to handle the collection of their royalties. A move that was prompted by complaints from Music Choice, a British online music provider, and broadcaster RTL, each claiming consumers could only purchase songs in their own country of residence, and that retailers were forced to acquire licenses from agencies in each nation, calling for a multi-country license.

Along with ugh the artists’ right of royalty agency, and the new multi-country music licenses have been passed, the General Court rejected the 2008 European Commission’s claim that royalty collecting societies had colluded illegally, breaching EU antitrust rules, saying there was inadequate proof from regulators of any violation.

The new multi-country licensing ruling will streamline the regulatory process and make it easier for retailer and streaming music start-ups looking to enter the EU market, and there are quite a few.

Twitter recently confirmed it acquired an Aussie music website as part of its plans to launch a music discovery service, while online retailer Amazon has been eyeing entering the subscription service market.

Apple will benefit greatly from the new ruling as it reportedly finalises royalty rate deals with record company majors Warner and Universal for its new music streaming service, reportedly modeled on internet radio service Pandora and integrated into their next build of iTunes.

Search engine titan Google will also benefit from the new multi-country licensing ruling as it expands the international reach of its online storage and digital music store, Google Music, which recently launched in Australia. Most interestingly though is ‘Daisy’ – the code name for the revolutionary new subscription based music service from Beats Electronics with Trent Reznor at the helm.

All meaning that the effects of the Europe’s changes to the way they handle royalties will be felt in the industry sooner, rather than later.