Universal Music Group and Deezer to Launch Artist-Centric Music Streaming Model
- Michele
- 13 September 2023, Wednesday
In an official press release, Universal Music Group and Deezer announced that they will "implement an artist-centric streaming model to better reward artists while also enhancing fan experience.” The introduction of the new model aims to put music at the center of the content that can be found on streaming platforms and reward artists "at all stages of their careers whether they have 1000 fans or 100 thousand or 100 million."
Improved streaming experience for artists and fans alike
Streaming platforms come with many advantages for artists and fans alike. Musicians can use them to earn money and make their music more accessible to their audience, while fans can find their favorite artists with ease and keep their music organized on one platform. At the same time, they have frequently been criticized for paying low royalties and primarily benefiting the companies behind them rather than the artists that use them.
Now, Universal Music and Deezer aim to improve the experience for artists and fans alike. In an official press release, the companies announced that they will “implement an artist-centric streaming model to better reward artists while also enhancing fan experience.” The companies aim to “develop an economic model that better reflects the true value of artist-fan relationships.”
The model will benefit professional artists (those who have a minimum of 1,000 streams per month by a minimum of 500 unique listeners) who will receive a “double boost” to their royalties. To further protect streaming payments for artists, it will continue to “drive an updated, and stricter, proprietary fraud detection system, removing incentives for bad actors.” Additionally, the platform will limit and demonetize noise content.
Re-imagining the current streaming model
According to the press release, the “collaboration to launch an artist-centric model is driven by the companies’ recognition that the current music streaming model needs to be re-imagined. While streaming has been the most significant technology advancement in music in many years, a flood of uploads with no meaningful engagement, including non-artist noise content, has necessitated reassessment of the approach that platforms, labels, and artists take to foster a thriving music ecosystem.”
“The goal of the artist centric model is to mitigate dynamics that risk drowning music in a sea of noise and to ensure we are better supporting and rewarding artists at all stages of their careers whether they have 1000 fans or 100 thousand or 100 million. With this multi-faceted approach, music by artists that attracts and engages fans will receive weighting that better recognizes its value, and the fraud and gaming, which serves only to deprive artists their due compensation, will be aggressively addressed,” says Michael Nash, UMG’s EVP and Chief Digital Officer.
The new model will be launched in France at the end of 2023 with additional markets to follow.
