Universal Music Group & Spotify Strike New Multi-Year Agreement

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Universal Music Group and Spotify have announced new, multi-year agreements for Recorded Music and Music Publishing that seeks to advance the next era of streaming innovation.

Under the new agreement, artists, songwriters and consumers will benefit from new and evolving offers, new paid subscription tiers, bundling of music and non-music content, and a richer audio and visual content catalog. It establishes a direct license between Spotify and Universal Music Publishing Group across Spotify’s current product portfolio in the U.S. and several other countries.

Sir Lucian Grainge, Chairman & CEO, Universal Music Group says, “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.”

Daniel Ek, Spotify’s Founder and CEO, shares, “For nearly two decades, Spotify has made good on its commitment to return the music industry to growth, ensuring that we deliver record payouts to the benefit of artists and songwriters each new year. This partnership ensures we can continue to deliver on this promise by embracing the certainty that constant innovation is key to making paid music subscriptions even more attractive to a broader audience of fans around the world.”

This follows Spotify’s May announcement about changes to its payment model for songwriters and publishers, as the platform transitions to a bundled subscription service that now includes audiobooks. The move has sparked scrutiny from songwriters, rights-holders, and advocacy groups.

Of the UMG and Spotify partnership, NMPA President & CEO David Israelite, an advocate for songwriter rights and a vocal critic of Spotify, says, “The announcement of a deal between Spotify and UMPG bodes well for the industry and is a clear sign that Spotify felt the backlash to its bundling scheme.

“While we do not have details of the agreement beyond what was in the press release, it appears that it increases royalty rates which is good news for the entire industry. A rising tide lifts all boats and this signals that Spotify is coming back to the table after its disastrous attempt to manipulate royalty rates. As we head towards the next CRB, this should serve as a roadmap for other DSPs that songwriters should not be treated as the enemy, but should instead be treated as valued business partners.”

LB Cantrell
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