Spotify strikes a huge deal with Universal

It will particularly impact the compensation for recorded tracks and publishing rights.

The two giants of the music industry have promised that artists and consumers will benefit from new and evolving 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 integrating album previews as well as music videos.

For the past few years, the Spotify platform, which has over 640 million users, has been offering audiobooks and podcasts in addition to its music offerings.

According to the specialized site Billboard, this bundled offer allows for a reduction in 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 dedicated to protecting the rights of artists on streaming platforms, filed a complaint against Spotify with the Federal Trade Commission of the United States.

«Spotify maintains its bundled offer, but with this direct deal [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 premium subscriptions and product sales, rather than the number of streams.