Spotify allows freelance artists to download music directly to the service, bypassing distributors



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Starting today (September 20), Spotify will allow a group of independent artists to upload their music directly to the streaming platform via their Spotify For Artists account, the company said. The program, which launches in beta, has been tested with a small group of artists – including Noname, Michael Brown, BY THE INTERMEDIATE OF ONE and Hot Shade – and will be available by invitation to "a few hundred independent artists based in the United States," according to a blog post, with other artists able to sign up for a mailing list for receive invitations in the weeks or months to come.

For artists who control their copyright and do not have a labeling or distribution agreement in place, they can connect to their Spotify For Artists account, download their music, fill in relevant metadata information, preview the download on their page and set the song to go live at a pre-programmed time.

"We strived to make the tool easy, flexible and transparent", Senior Product Manager of Spotify For Artists, Market Creator Kene Anoliefo recounts Display panel. "There will be no limit or constraint on the frequency with which they can download.We think this can open a really interesting creative space for artists to start sharing their music with their fans on Spotify. . "

Stripe, payment processing provider, will help Spotify pay royalties, which will be counted each month. In an email, a Spotify representative said that artists who download their music directly will receive 50% of Spotify's net revenue (the service will also be counted towards publishers and collecting companies) and will retain 100% of the royalties on that spotify. music. Artists will be able to track historical payments as well as view future payment projections and when they will be deposited into their bank accounts.

"The tests have taught us that this level of transparency really helps artists plan and budget for the future, and connect their overall performance to Spotify, to the way their music performs, to the way their fans are. discover their music – using all of these existing tools as well as these extra tools to stream music and get paid, "says Anoliefo. "There is not much information needed other than the music and metadata associated with it, and then we'll take care of the rest."

Circuits circumvention

This new tool would effectively allow independent artists to bypass traditional digital distributors when downloading and collecting royalties from Spotify. Previously, to stream music to Spotify (or most other digital streaming services), artists had to go through a distributor like Kobalt's DistroKid, CD Baby, TuneCore, Record Union, EmuBands or AWAL. (Labels have their own dispensing arms or can use services like the orchard.)

DistroKid, for example, also allows those it distributes to collect 100% royalty and revenue, monthly accounts and unlimited downloads of albums and songs, all for $ 19.99 / year and, as as a preferred distributor, offers its users instant access to Spotify For. Artists. Services such as TuneCore and CD Baby typically charge a per album or single package, with additional options for publishing administrative and social media services, for example. But these distribution companies serve all streaming services and digital download stores worldwide.

Now, thanks to Spotify For Artists, independent copyrighted musicians would be able to do everything on Spotify, for free, via Spotify For Artists, with all the data that Spotify will provide directly to the artists via their own site . dashboard. For practical reasons, it's a one-stop shop for checking out feeds, fans, royalties and payments from the world's largest streaming service.

It is also a step further that society takes to assume the responsibilities of a traditional label, while staying away from the words "label" by claiming that it has no copyright. It is not certain that Spotify's distribution partners were consulted in advance on the new offer; when Display panel reported in June that the streaming service offered direct offers to artists and independent managers, it surprised many record makers and forced them to defend themselves in many ways. (In August, Display panel reported on terms that many of these agreements imply.)

Similarly, Spotify's deployment of its hateful content and hateful policies of Display panel reported in May, also surprised a lot in the music business by surprise, and caused a quick reaction. In the end, the company has abandoned its hateful conduct policy, although its hateful content reserve remains in effect.

Check out the Spotify blog article announcing the new direct download option here.

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