Another flow is possible. This is evidenced by the agreement between Universal and Deezer: from this autumn in France, and then in the rest of the world, the platform will give a double boost to those who are defined as “professional artists”, i.e. At least 1,000 plays per month by at least 500 different listeners to more fairly reward the quality and engagement they bring. According to Financial Times calculations, big stars like BTS and Billy Eilish, as well as up-and-coming bands, will see their royalties rise by 10%. But the increase could be even bigger: Another increase in the number of songs that fans actively interact with is expected, which will reduce the economic impact of algorithmic programming.
Currently, platforms like Apple Music, Spotify, and Deezer allocate payments based on total streams, regardless of what the track is or who wrote it. And also they do not distinguish whether listening is the result of a user choice or automatic algorithm programming (this applies to stations or songs following the selected ones).
JBL sees how artificial intelligence will change the way you listen to music
our correspondent Bruno Ruffilli
Deezer CEO Geronimo Folgueira says the deal is “the most ambitious shift” in the music streaming economy since it was struck. “There is no other industry where all content is equally valued, and it should be obvious to everyone that the sound of the rain or the washing machine is not as valuable as the song of their favorite artist,” he says in a press release.
Deezer will remove tracks identified as non-artistic ambient noise from monetization and replace them with a new proprietary sound library. It’s a million-dollar-a-year turnover that profoundly changes the balance of the recording industry.
97% of all artists who uploaded at least one song to the Deezer platform generated only 2% of the total streams. And, in turn, only 2% of all users who have uploaded content have more than 1,000 unique listeners per month.
“The goal of the artist-centric model is to soften the dynamics that risk drowning music in a sea of noise and ensure that artists are better supported and rewarded at all stages of their career, whether they have 1,000 fans or 100,000 or 100 million explained Michael Nash, Executive Vice President and Chief Digital Officer of Universal Music Group. Through such a diversified approach, the music of artists who attract and engage fans will be given weight that fully recognizes their value, and tricks and deceptions that only serve to deprive artists of the compensation they are due will be actively tackled.”
According to data from Goldman Sachs Research released in July, streaming music consumption has grown 2.5x since 2017, but revenue has fallen 20% over the same period. Thus, the agreement between Deezer and UMG could have an impact on other streaming platforms such as Spotify or Apple Music. But that’s not the only model possible: SoundCloud, for example, is experimenting with a fan-supported royalty model that splits each subscriber’s payments to the artists they actually listen to, rather than pooling all the revenue and then sharing it with everyone. artist. . Warner Music Group appears to be interested in adopting the same fee structure.
JBL sees how artificial intelligence will change the way you listen to music
our correspondent Bruno Ruffilli
But Universal is the major moving the fastest in the changing panorama of online music: a few months ago it blocked the distribution of an artificial intelligence video that combined the voices of Drake and The Weeknd, it recently announced an agreement with Endel, a small music production company in Berlin, creating music using artificial intelligence. We are also aware of advanced negotiations with Google to license music and voices for songs created by artificial intelligence.