Universal Music Group (UMG) and Spotify have announced the striking of a new multi-year deal that will usher in “the next era of streaming innovation” – find out more below.
Yesterday (January 26), UMG and Spotify announced their new deal, which will continue their long-running partnership dating back to 2015. In a press release, the two companies shared that the new deal was shaped around recorded music and music publishing that will be focused on “growth, innovation and the advancement of artists’ and songwriters’ success”.
Per the deal, both consumers and artists will be able to access “new paid subscription tiers, bundling of music and non-music content, and a richer audio and visual content catalog”. At the time of writing, information on the new subscription tiers have not been made public.
In an effort to “advance the next era of streaming innovation”, UMG and Spotify are also renewing their “commitment to artist-centric principles”, which includes “a mutually beneficial relationship for songwriters on the platform”. They aim to establish this through a new license that will be direct between Spotify and UMG’s publishing arms in the US and other countries.
As for artists revenues, the two companies are “ensuring that artists continue to be properly rewarded for the share of audience engagement that they drive and that their streaming royalties remain protected through the platform’s application of its fraud detection and enforcement systems”.
UMG’s chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge said in a statement: “When we first presented our vision for the next stage in the evolution of music subscription several months ago — Streaming 2.0 — this is precisely the kind of partnership development we envisioned. This agreement furthers and broadens the collaboration with Spotify for both our labels and music publisher, advancing artist-centric principles to drive greater monetization for artists and songwriters, as well as enhancing product offerings for consumers.”
The new deal comes just slightly over a month after UMG announced an expanded global relationship with Amazon to “explore new and enhanced product opportunities” that will benefit artists and create better experiences for fans. UMG will also be collaborating with Amazon as they expand in audio, including further innovation in audiobooks, audio and visual programming as well as livestreamed content.
Meanwhile, Spotify has been courting controversy in recent months. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek sparked backlash in May for his comments relating to the cost of “creating content”, with countless users and musicians describing him as “out of touch”.
In part, the backlash related to the reports around the time that Spotify had made profits of over €1billion (£860m), following staff being laid off and subscription prices rising. It also came as Spotify officially demonetised all songs on the platform with less than 1,000 streams – making it harder for artists to generate royalties from their music and restricting new artists looking to crack the music industry.
More recently, Spotify divided opinion by hosting a brunch one day before Donald Trump’s inauguration and donating $150,000 (£122,000) to the official ceremony.
Earlier this month, Björk said that she thinks Spotify is “probably the worst thing that has happened to musicians”. This wasn’t the first time that Björk has shared her thoughts on the streaming platform. Back in 2015, she also opened up about her decision not to release her album ‘Vulnicura’ on Spotify out of “respect” principles.
“It just seems insane,” she said at the time. “To work on something for two or three years and then just, ‘Oh, here it is for free’. It’s not about the money; it’s about respect. Respect for the craft and the amount of work you put into it.”
The comments align with the outlook shared by Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante last November, when he described streaming as the place “where music goes to die”.
“Subconsciously this may be the reason why we don’t make records every three years or whatever, because I don’t want to give it away for free,” he said. “It is basically stealing. It is stealing from the artist – the people who run music streaming sites like Spotify. I don’t subscribe to Spotify. I think it is where music goes to die.”
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