Universal Music and Spotify reach a significant agreement

The world’s largest record label Universal Music Group (UMG) and the leader in music streaming Spotify have signed a long-term agreement. This will particularly impact the remuneration for recorded tracks and publishing rights.

The two giants of the music industry have promised that artists and consumers will benefit from new and scalable offers, new tiers of paid subscriptions, a bundled offering of musical and non-musical content, as well as a richer catalog of audio and visual content.

UMG, which represents established artists like Taylor Swift and U2, had already strengthened its partnership with Spotify last year by incorporating album premieres and music videos.

In recent years, the Spotify platform, which boasts over 640 million users, has offered audiobooks and podcasts in addition to its music offering. However, according to the specialized site Billboard, this bundled offering reduces the percentage of revenue paid to artists, as the total content is more extensive.

For this reason, last May, the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC), an organization tasked with advocating for artists’ rights on streaming platforms, filed a complaint against Spotify with the Federal Trade Commission in the United States.

“Spotify maintains its bundled offering, but with this direct agreement [with UMG], it has evolved to take into account broader rights, including a different economic treatment for musical and non-musical content,” announced a spokesperson for Spotify on the site Music Business Worldwide.

Lucian Grainge, CEO of UMG, stated in a press release that this agreement illustrates his company’s “vision” for “streaming 2.0“. This is an approach aimed at prioritizing high-end subscriptions and product sales, rather than the number of streams.