Universal Music Group and Spotify ink new multi-year deal ushering in “the next era of streaming”

nme.com:

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.