What's the cost of a smile?

US District judge William Conner has ruled that artists be paid royalties for songs streamed across online music services, reports The Associate Press.

Payment scales were arranged for the The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). In particular, Yahoo, AOL and RealNetworks owe millions of dollars in back payments to ASCAP.

Legacy royalties are based on the number of streams of each song through each service. This formula will also be used to guide payments through 2009. Under the formula, AOL and Yahoo owe royalties of $5.95 million and $6.76 million, respectively, for streams in 2006.

In the 2006 filing of the case, AOL and Yahoo proposed compensation between $632,879 and $889,402; ASCAP demanded millions. The finalized amount still falls short of what the trade group sought.

The ruling specifically — and rather positively — impacts writers, performers and publishers. Record labels were not included in the compensation formula.