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.”

Concord has promoted Jonathan Eby to Executive Vice President of Information Systems and Technology. In his new role, Eby will oversee the company’s global technology operations including infrastructure, development and strategy across all business areas.

Since joining Concord in 2017, Eby has constructed and led an international team that has supported the company’s rapid growth. By organizing the enterprise technology personnel into divisionally focused teams, Eby has enabled each division to provide services to artists, songwriters, composers, playwrights and more around the world. Eby and his team have led efforts in ERP consolidations, EPM implementation projects and the development of novel sync licensing and song delivery systems.

“As we continue to grow and expand worldwide, it is critically important that we have the right systems in place to support that growth,” explains Vic Zaraya, Concord’s Chief Operating Officer. “Jonathan has repeatedly demonstrated his ability to identify and understand our business needs and effectively develop and deploy technology in support of those needs. This ability, combined with his extensive experience in the music industry, makes him distinctively qualified for this role.”

“I am thrilled to embrace this new challenge,” says Eby. “Taking a business-first approach to IT projects ensures rich collaboration between our business and technology teams. The better our technology teams understand the unique and detailed business challenges we face every day, the better positioned we are to deliver solutions that are impactful and meaningful to our operations and, ultimately, to our clients and catalogs.”

Prior to Concord, Eby spent 15 years as COO of the classical music distributor and label Naxos. There, he managed the technology and distribution operations as well as served on the board of directors. At Naxos, he played a key role in developing the world’s first digital distribution platform focused on studied music and expanding the physical distribution business.

Eby will continue to be based at Concord’s Nashville headquarters.

Luke Bryan will embark on his brand new 30+ city tour this summer, the “Country Song Came On Tour.”

Some of country’s up-and-coming artists will appear as special guests on the tour including George Birge, Avery Anna, Ashland Craft, Mae Estes, Cole Goodwin, Braxton Keith, Randall King, Vincent Mason, Drake Milligan, Adrien Nunez and Owen Riegling. DJ Rock will appear on all dates.

The five-time Entertainer of The Year has played for nearly 15 million fans during his career, and will visit Syracuse, Raleigh, Orlando, Dallas, Charleston, St. Louis and more on the tour, which kicks off May 29. Tickets go on sale beginning this Friday, (Jan. 31) at LukeBryan.com.

During his career, Bryan has amassed a total of 22.6 billion global streams, 11.5 million global album sales and 55.5 million track sales worldwide. He is the most digital single RIAA certified country artist of all time, with 96.5 million digital single units and 18 million album certified units.

Luke Bryan Tour Dates:
May 29 – Bethel, NY – Bethel Woods Center for the Arts
May 30 – Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center
May 31 – Wantagh, NY – Northwell at Jones Beach Theater
June 5 – Syracuse, NY – Empower Federal Credit Union Amp. at Lakeview
June 6 – Camden, NJ – Freedom Mortgage Pavilion
June 7 – Raleigh, NC – Coastal Credit Union Music Park (on sale 2-28)
June 12 – Savannah, GA – Enmarket Arena
June 13 – Orlando, FL – Kia Center (on sale 2-28)
June 19 – Rogers, AR – Walmart AMP
June 20 – Dallas, TX – Dos Equis Pavilion
June 21 – Lafayette, LA – CAJUNDOME
June 26 – Bonner Springs, KS – Country Stampede *
June 27 – North Platte, NE – NebraksaLand Days *
June 28 – Grand Junction, CO – Country Jam *
July 10 – Toronto, ON – Budweiser Stage (on sale 2-14)
July 11 – Cuyahoga Falls, OH – Blossom Music Center (on sale 2-21)
July 12 – Hershey, PA – Hersheypark Stadium
July 17 – Greenville, SC – Bon Secours Wellness Arena
July 18 – Charleston, SC – Credit One Stadium
July 19 – Birmingham, AL – Coca-Cola Amphitheater
July 31 – St. Louis, MO – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre (on sale 2-14)
Aug 1 – Cincinnati, OH – Riverbend Music Center
Aug 2 – Burgettstown, PA – The Pavilion at Star Lake
Aug 7 – Columbia, MD – Merriweather Post Pavilion
Aug 8 – Mansfield, MA – Xfinity Center (on sale 3-14)
Aug 9 – Hartford, CT – Xfinity Theatre
Aug 14 – Charleston, WV – Charleston Coliseum
Aug 16 – Virginia Beach, VA – Veterans United Home Loans Amp. at Virginia Beach
Aug 23 – Dieppe, NB – YQM Country Fest *
Aug 24 – Bangor, ME – Maine Savings Amphitheater
Aug 28 – Noblesville, IN – Ruoff Music Center (on sale 2-28)
Aug 30 – Buffalo, NY – Darien Lake Amphitheater
*Festival dates

This week’s MusicRow Weekly highlights exciting updates from Nashville’s music scene. Click here to see the full edition.

Ashley Gorley leads the headlines with his induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame as part of the 2025 class. He joins George Clinton, Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, the Beach Boys’ Mike Love, Tony Macaulay and The Doobie Brothers’ Tom Johnston, Michael McDonald and Patrick Simmons in the class of inductees. Gorley’s record-breaking 80 No. 1 radio singles make him the most commercially successful country songwriter ever.

Eric Church and Luke Combs will share the CRS 2025 Artist Humanitarian Award, presented on Feb. 21 at the Country Radio Seminar in Nashville. The pair raised over $24 million for hurricane relief efforts in under a month, thanks in part to their Oct. 26 stadium concert in Charlotte, which drew 82,000 fans and set records.

615 Leverage + Strategy, founded in 2019 by John Zarling and Jackie Campbell, has rebranded as Results Global. The Nashville agency continues to represent Dolly Parton, who has held the top QScore as the world’s most marketable celebrity since 2019.

Neste Live!, a Live Nation company, announced leadership changes with Andrew Fortin promoted to President and founder Gil Cunningham stepping into the Chairman role, marking a new chapter for the live music company.

Nashville’s songwriting scene saw notable publishing deals this week. Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer Sam Ellis signed with Warner Chappell Music and Madfun Entertainment. Joe Clemmons partnered with Big Machine Music and Ryan Hurd in a co-publishing deal, and Jacob Durrett signed with Big Loud Publishing/ERN’s Cadillac Music.

The Kentucky Gentlemen, a twin brother country duo, signed a record deal with River House Artists. Walk Off Entertainment, founded by Chris Ruediger, also inked a global deal with Virgin Music Group, continuing its growth in the industry.

This week’s interviews feature rising artist Ty Myers, who released his debut album, The Select, today (Jan. 24). In the My Music Row Story column, Ward Guenther shared the story behind Whiskey Jam, a live music series that’s hosted over 1,000 shows and supported countless artists.

In addition, the latest MusicRow CountryBreakout Radio Chart is included, with Lainey Wilson maintaining the No. 1 spot for a third week with “4x4xU.” Explore more chart data here.

MusicRow Weekly is delivered every Friday, featuring Nashville’s top music industry news, exclusive interviews, song reviews, radio and songwriter charts and more. Sign up for free here.