<\/p>\n
Sony Music Group<\/a> and Spotify<\/a> have struck a new multi-year global licensing deal that spans both recorded music<\/span>\u00a0and publishing.<\/p>\n Spotify\u2019s agreement with Sony Music Publishing<\/a> includes a new direct licensing arrangement in the US, which the streaming company says will \u201censur[e] songwriters share more directly in the growth of streaming\u201d.<\/p>\n The agreement marks\u00a0Spotify\u2019s<\/strong> latest direct deal with a prominent music publisher and moves its agreement with SMP beyond the traditional CRB model in the US.<\/p>\n This means that the direct deal supersedes the audiobook \u2018bundling<\/a>\u2018\u00a0<\/strong>payment structure that, starting in March last year, saw Spotify dramatically cut the rate of mechanical royalties\u00a0paid to publishers and songwriters in the US.<\/p>\n All three majors have now inked direct publishing agreements with Spotify.<\/p>\n Universal Music Publishing Group<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Warner Chappell Music<\/a>\u00a0signed direct licensing deals with Spotify<\/strong>\u00a0in January and February, respectively, that override the\u00a0CRB<\/strong> bundling discount<\/span>.<\/p>\n Spotify\u00a0also signed<\/a> a direct licensing deal with Kobalt<\/a> covering the US last month.<\/span><\/p>\n Commenting on the deal, Rob Stringer<\/a>, Chairman of Sony Music Group, said: \u201cSony Music Group and Spotify have long been mutually committed to advancing music streaming and growing the marketplace for all.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSony Music Group and Spotify have long been mutually committed to advancing music streaming and growing the marketplace for all.\u201d<\/p>\n Rob Stringer, Sony Music Group<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Added Stringer: \u201cThis is further reflected in our new agreements where we\u2019re working to develop futuristic approaches that ensure our artists and songwriters remain appropriately compensated for their work, and audiences are getting a high-quality experience that\u2019s ever evolving.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOur partnership with Sony<\/a> is built on a shared drive to shape the future of music.\u201d<\/p>\n Daniel Ek<\/a>, Spotify<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Daniel Ek, Spotify\u2019s Founder and CEO, said: \u201cOur partnership with Sony is built on a shared drive to shape the future of music. Together, we\u2019re accelerating the pace of innovation to create powerful new opportunities and increasing revenue for artists and songwriters.<\/p>\n \u201cThese agreements aren\u2019t just a milestone; they\u2019re a catalyst for building a more dynamic and prosperous music ecosystem for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis alignment creates space for new opportunities and long-term growth for everyone involved.\u201d<\/p>\n Alex Norstr\u00f6m, Spotify<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Alex Norstr\u00f6m, Co-President & Chief Business Officer at Spotify, said: \u201cThese deals with Sony Music Group are built to better support artists and songwriters by unlocking new formats and forging deeper connections with fans.<\/p>\n \u201cThis alignment creates space for new opportunities and long-term growth for everyone involved.\u201d<\/p>\n Key phrases in today\u2019s official statement offer important clues about what might appear on Spotify\u2019s product roadmap soon.<\/p>\n In the press release announcing the news on Thursday (September 18), the companies said that Sony Music Entertainment<\/a> and Sony Music Publishing \u201chave each entered into multi-year agreements with Spotify<\/strong> focused on delivering continued growth and innovation in music streaming that provides greater value for artists, songwriters and consumers worldwide\u201d.<\/p>\n The statement added: \u201cThe companies will work together to keep improving the listening experience while creating more opportunities for artists and songwriters to reach audiences everywhere.<\/p>\n \u201cThese initiatives will launch new product offerings, including enhanced audio and visual formats<\/strong> that enable deeper connections with fans.\u201d<\/p>\n As we pointed out last month when Spotify announced its Kobalt deal, and also hinted then about working on \u201cnew formats,\u201d one particular new \u201caudiovisual format\u201d not yet available on Spotify in the US is music videos.<\/strong><\/p>\n If music videos in the US are indeed one of Spotify\u2019s \u201cnew product offerings,\u201d a licensing deal with Sony that covers music video usage in the US ahead of the format\u2019s probable launch there would make sense.<\/p>\n Other recent deals struck by Spotify include a multi-territory, multi-year renewal<\/a> deal with Amra, the global digital licensing collection society. <\/span><\/p>\n The agreement followed a week after Spotify\u2019s direct licensing deal<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0Kobalt<\/a><\/b>, which covered only US operations.<\/span><\/p>\n Kobalt\u2019s catalog is globally licensed outside the US by Amra.\u00a0Indeed,\u00a0amra<\/strong>\u00a0is a sister company of Kobalt, representing both Kobalt\u2019s rights and those of third-party clients.<\/span>Music Business Worldwide<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.musicbusinessworldwide.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sony Music Group and Spotify have struck a new multi-year global licensing deal that spans both recorded music\u00a0and publishing. Spotify\u2019s agreement with Sony Music Publishing includes a new direct licensing arrangement in the US, which the streaming company says will \u201censur[e] songwriters share more directly in the growth of streaming\u201d. The agreement marks\u00a0Spotify\u2019s latest direct […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2031503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2031502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Sony-and-Spotify-strike-new-global-deal-including-a-direct.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2031502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2031503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2031502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2031502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2031502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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