SPOTIFY LOCKS IN NEW ROYALTY RULES

Spotify has spelled out its new streaming payment policies, announcing that over the next five years, the new system will put an extra $1b in the pockets of artists whose songs generate more than 1,000 streams.

The platform confirmed that beginning next year, it will charge labels and distributors per track when flagrant artificial streaming is detected; tracks must have reached at least 1k streams in the previous 12 months to generate recorded royalties; and the minimum track length of so-called "functional noise" recordings is being raised to two minutes to be eligible to generate royalties.

Spotify got a collection of execs to talk about how much they like the upcoming changes.

Believe founder & CEO Denis Ladegaillerie said, "Believe welcomes Spotify’s initiative to clean up the market from artificial streaming and noise, driving more revenues to legitimate artists. We believe that creating more benefits to develop up-and-coming artists would be a great complement to the institution of a 1,000-stream threshold. We are encouraged by our current dialogue with them on this topic."

“This policy change is a significant step towards preserving the integrity of streaming metrics and ensuring that artists, especially those who rely heavily on streaming for their livelihoods, are compensated justly,” said Create Music Group CEO Jonathan Strauss. “This move by Spotify resonates with our core values of transparency and fairness and we are optimistic that it will lead to a healthier, more sustainable ecosystem for artists and fans alike."

Ghazi Shami, CEO & founder of EMPIRE, noted, "Spotify’s commitment to platform integrity will ensure that independent artists have the ability to reach their fans and be fairly compensated for their work."

On this blog post, Spotify explains its solutions. Elsewhere, interactive tools take users through payments and the streaming service’s history.