Confirmed: Spotify and Common have a brand new deal – together with a direct settlement with Common Music Publishing Group within the US

It’s official: as MBW reported earlier, Spotify and Common Music Group have inked a brand new multi-year licensing settlement.

Either side of the deal have now confirmed their recent alliance.

And, as MBW’s sources nodded to earlier… it features a shock direct licensing settlement between Common Music Publishing Group (UMPG) and Spotify within the United States (plus a number of different territories).

Sir Lucian Grainge, Chairman & CEO, Common Music Group stated, “Once we first introduced our imaginative and prescient for the subsequent stage within the evolution of music subscription a number of months in the past—Steaming 2.0—that is exactly the sort of partnership improvement we envisioned. This settlement furthers and broadens the collaboration with Spotify for each our labels and music writer, advancing artist-centric ideas to drive larger monetization for artists and songwriters, in addition to enhancing product choices for shoppers.”

Daniel Ek, Spotify’s Founder and CEO, stated, “For practically twenty years, Spotify has made good on its dedication to return the music business to development, making certain that we ship document payouts to the advantage of artists and songwriters every new yr. This partnership ensures we will proceed to ship on this promise by embracing the understanding that fixed innovation is essential to creating paid music subscriptions much more enticing to a broader viewers of followers around the globe.”

Behind the scenes, there stays some debate over the suggestion – put ahead from MBW sources in our earlier story – that the brand new deal basically ends the controversial ‘bundle’-related low cost charge that has been utilized to US royalty payouts from Spotify to UMPG since Q1 2024.

Right here’s our understanding as issues stand:

• Through the brand new direct take care of UMPG, the royalties paid to the publishing firm and its songwriters within the US from Spotify will change;
• Our sources keep that, when it comes to royalty sums paid by Spotify to UMPG, the impact of the bundle-related low cost over the previous yr will successfully be nullified going ahead, and payouts to UMPG and its songwriters will rise;
• Nonetheless, throughout the personal UMPG and Spotify settlement, there stays a price differentiation between a music-plus-audiobooks consumer vs. a music-only consumer.

On this matter, in response to our story earlier, a Spotify spokesperson stated: “Spotify maintains its bundle, however with this direct deal [with UMPG], it has developed to account for broader rights, together with a distinct financial remedy for music and non-music content material.”

The brand new official press launch from UMG and Spotify about their recent deal is printed under in full to your delectation.

UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP AND SPOTIFY STRIKE NEW MULTI-YEAR AGREEMENT 

Expanded International Relationship For Recorded Music and Music Publishing

Firms to Speed up Product Innovation, Advance Music Monetization and Deepen Engagement Between Artists and Followers

SANTA MONICA and STOCKHOLM, 27 January 2025 – Common Music Group (UMG), the world chief in music-based leisure and Spotify, the world’s hottest audio streaming subscription service, right now introduced new, multi-year agreements for Recorded Music and Music Publishing centered on development, innovation and the development of artists’ and songwriters’ success.

Sir Lucian Grainge, Chairman & CEO, Common Music Group stated, “Once we first introduced our imaginative and prescient for the subsequent stage within the evolution of music subscription a number of months in the past—Steaming 2.0—that is exactly the sort of partnership improvement we envisioned. This settlement furthers and broadens the collaboration with Spotify for each our labels and music writer, advancing artist-centric ideas to drive larger monetization for artists and songwriters, in addition to enhancing product choices for shoppers.”

Daniel Ek, Spotify’s Founder and CEO, stated, “For practically twenty years, Spotify has made good on its dedication to return the music business to development, making certain that we ship document payouts to the advantage of artists and songwriters every new yr. This partnership ensures we will proceed to ship on this promise by embracing the understanding that fixed innovation is essential to creating paid music subscriptions much more enticing to a broader viewers of followers around the globe.”

Beneath the brand new agreements, UMG and Spotify will collaborate intently to advance the subsequent period of streaming innovation. Artists, songwriters and shoppers will profit from new and evolving affords, new paid subscription tiers, bundling of music and non-music content material, and a richer audio and visible content material catalog. By deepening viewers experiences, driving additional engagement and amplifying the connection between artists, songwriters and their followers, the collaboration between these two corporations will place the business for continued subscriber development and retention.

The brand new publishing settlement establishes a direct license between Spotify and Common Music Publishing Group throughout Spotify’s present product portfolio within the U.S. and a number of other different nations, which reinforces a mutually helpful relationship for songwriters on the platform.

The brand new agreements additionally renew the businesses’ dedication to artist-centric ideas, making certain that artists proceed to be correctly rewarded for the share of viewers engagement that they drive and that their streaming royalties stay protected by the platforms’ utility of its fraud detection and enforcement programs.Music Enterprise Worldwide