With her new contract, Taylor Swift signs a better offer for all UMG artists

In signing its new global agreement with Universal Music Group, Taylor Swift has used its considerable weight to ensure a win for all UMG artists.

"There was a condition that meant more to me than any other transaction point," Swift said on Instagram Monday morning (November 19). "As part of my new contract with Universal Music Group, I have asked that any sale of their Spotify shares result in a cash distribution to their artists, not recoverable. They have generously accepted this, that they think they are much better conditions than those previously paid for by other major labels … "

If it is not clear that UMG payment terms will be better than those of Sony Music Entertainment, its plan will probably be more favorable than that of Warner Music Group for some artists. Swift asked UMG to share its Spotify shares with artists in non-recoverable payments, which Sony Music Entertainment put in place with its artists and distributed labels when it sold half of its Spotify share earlier this year for about $ 750 million. Some artists have received up to a million dollars in cash.

In August, Warner Music Group sold 100% of its stake in Spotify for $ 504 million. The $ 126 million sales proceeds from the sale were credited to artists' accounts on their royalty statements – but were not unrecoverable. In other words, if an artist has not yet recovered his rights, the payment will be used to pay the balance he still owes to WMG, as opposed to an unconditional royalty. Distributed labels also shared the exceptional benefits of their contracts.

UMG remains the last of the three major investors to retain its Spotify share: its 5% represents approximately 531 million USD for the quarter ended June 30th. The company did not announce its intention to sell, but in March, it had announced it would share the product with the artists it was to unload its stock spotify. Swift's request was to make royalty payments non-recoverable, that is, unconditional, regardless of whether an artist is still the owner of the label's money), although sources say that UMM has leaned in this direction. For now, any sale is probably suspended, Vivendi, the parent company of UMG, planning to divest up to 50% of the company.

This friendly approach for artists is logical as labels face increasing competition to attract talent in the era of streaming, artists having more options than ever before, including completely bypassing traditional labels.

This is not the first time that Swift is using its power of persuasion to help all artists: in 2015, Swift wrote an open letter to Apple's CEO. Tim Cook calling on the company not to pay royalties to artists and producers during a free three-month trial to promote the launch of Apple Music. Cook has reversed the policy of Apple.

The story of Swift with Spotify was difficult: she removed her music from the streaming service for three years – from 2014 to 2017 – because she felt that Spotify was paying a small fee to the artists.

Swift views UMG's assent as "a sign that we are moving toward positive change for creators – a goal that I will never stop trying to help achieve in any way possible. I am so happy to have Sir Lucian Grainge as a partner in these efforts. "

UMG declined to comment.

Ed Christman and Hannah Karp helped to prepare this story.