Spotify and Sony Boost Songwriter Royalties

The provided source is an excerpt from a Billboard article detailing a significant new partnership between Spotify and Sony Music Group, which includes deals for both recorded music and publishing. This agreement is particularly noteworthy because it makes Sony the third and final major music company to sign new direct licensing deals with Spotify, partly in response to the streaming service’s previous decision to reduce royalty rates for songwriters. Spotify had achieved this reduction by reclassifying its premium subscriptions as “bundles” after adding audiobooks, a move that the National Music Publishers’ Association claimed cost songwriters hundreds of millions of dollars. The new multi-year global pacts are intended to result in higher royalties for songwriters and include initiatives like enhanced audio and visual formats, as executives from both companies expressed a shared commitment to building a more dynamic and prosperous music ecosystem.