Universal Music Group (UMG), the world’s biggest music label, and Swedish streaming giant Spotify have reached a new multi-year agreement for recorded music and music publishing. The publishing agreement establishes a direct license between Spotify and UMG across Spotify’s current product portfolio in the U.S. and several other countries.
The partnership is expected to benefit artists, songwriters, and consumers through new and evolving offers, paid subscription tiers, bundling of music and non-music content, and a richer audio and visual content catalog. According to Spotify’s founder and CEO Daniel Ek, the partnership will bring constant innovation, making music subscriptions even more attractive to a broader worldwide audience.
This move comes as Spotify has faced challenges over the past year, including layoffs, reduced podcast production, and decreased marketing spending in an effort to boost profitability. The company has also raised prices for its U.S. plans to capitalize on demand for its premium products.
