🔵 Spotify unveils its changes to streaming payouts... but is it enough?
Sensible changes are afoot, but will it placate the likes of Universal?
Hi there,
Spotify has finally stepped up with its own take on combatting the various issues around streaming fraud and general white noise content on its platform with a threefold set of changes.
The first will see the platform change the minimum number of streams required to generate a royalty payout. So instead of a royalty being generated after 30s of music is played, it will instead require a minimum number of annual streams.
The second will see Spotify fining distributors aiding in provision of any music found to be engaging in streaming fraud. This also includes penalising labels.
The third will revise the minimum play time for a white noise track to have before it generates a royalty, thus eliminating the “60mins of music cut into 30s songs” issue that we’ve seen on the platform of late.
All three provisions are fairly sensible to me; in general I would think rights holders will be unanimous in agreeing that this is an improvement on the current state of affairs.
The real question, however, is whether this will go far enough to satisfy the likes of Universal, which has been increasingly vocal about its dissatisfaction with streaming remuneration, leading to its own deal with Deezer that we have covered a fair bit before now.
A cynic might argue that Spotify is make a pre-emptive strike here, offering a revision to things before rights holder force an alternative arrangement upon it. The reality is perhaps that these changes are all small, in the grand scheme, and that whilst they might do a little to reallocate some monies, they might not do enough to “enhance the value proposition of the platforms themselves, accelerating subscriber growth, and better monetizing fandom”, as Lucian Grainge put it back in January.
For that reason, it will be very interesting to see if the likes of Universal accept this as “good enough”, or whether it pushes back, seeking something that looks more like its deal with Deezer.
I’m fascinated to see how it all plays out.
Have a great evening,
D.
🎶 listening to “Stoned Autopilot - C2 Version” by Martin Buttrich. I am a huge Carl Craig fan, and his considerable volume of remixes are always worth visiting. This is one high point that a lot of people missed, with Craig dialling in the kind of metronomic, repetitive 4/4 vibe that sounds simple, but is oh-so-hard to actually nail. Arguably the perfect song to walk to, such is the pace. Believe me, you’ll get anywhere quicker with this on!
🤖 playing with UJAM’s Beatmaker DOPE plugin. I’m 100% here for anything that lets me make beats like this in under 10mins:
Stories from the Music Industry:
Spotify is changing its royalty model to crush streaming fraud and introduce a minimum threshold for payment
In short, the three changes are: Introducing a threshold of minimum annual streams before a track starts generating royalties on Spotify – in a move expected to de-monetize a portion of tracks that previously absorbed 0.5% of the service’s royalty pool; Financially penalizing distributors of music – labels included – when fraudulent activity is detected on tracks that they’ve uploaded to Spotify; and Introducing a minimum length of play-time that each non-music ‘noise’ track must reach in order to generate royalties.
👆🏻Hot take: these changes are all sensible enough. The real question is whether this will satisfy the likes of Universal with its current dissatisfaction of streaming remuneration models.
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👆🏻Hot take: credit to Meta, its product design here is fantastic. Agree that locking it in to Meta’s world is a huge negative, but everything about these makes them a compelling product to try out IMO.
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Why Dizziness Is Still a Medical Mystery
Balance disorders like vertigo can be devastating for patients—but they’re often invisible to the doctors who treat them.
👆🏻Hot take: incredibly timely to have this suggested as an article in Pocket when my own inner-ear complaint has returned with a vengeance. A great read though - even if your balance is fine!
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👆🏻Hot take: I never knew this about the Nigerian approach to names and naming people. Fascinating stuff.
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