Universal Music Group And Amazon Music Extend Licensing Agreement
Universal Music Group (UMG) and Amazon Music jointly announced today (December 23) the extension of their worldwide licensing agreement.
According to the press release, the deal includes “expanded global relations this will allow for further innovation, exclusive content with UMG artists and promoting artist-centered principles including increased fraud protection.”
PR claims that the deal ensures that “UMG artists achieve their goal of commercial potential via (Amazon Music’s) continued product improvements and exclusive content that increases genuine engagement between artists and fans.
Streaming 2.0: A New Era For Digital Music
In a statement today, Universal Music Group CEO and Chairman: Sir Lucian Grange commented: “We are very pleased to build on our long-standing and excellent partnership with Amazon Music; this heralds a new era of streaming – Streaming 2.0.”
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard “Streaming 2.0” mentioned by Grange and his management team.
This concept was central to the UMG Capital Markets Day for Investors in September, where it was explained that for UMG “Streaming 2.0” represents a new era of digital music based on changes including:
- (a) Streaming subscription offers become ‘segmented’ with more expensive music options for “superfans”;
- (b) Subscription ARPU (average revenue per user) is growing on music platforms, partly as a result of the aforementioned “superfan” offerings, and partly due to rising streaming prices.
Another key element of “Streaming 2.0” is the acceptance of what UMG calls “artist-centered principles” on streaming platforms.
In summary, artist-centric changes are shaping how music streaming platforms pay royalties, often favoring artists with a significant fan base over those with fewer than 1,000 monthly listeners.
“Artist-Centered” also encompasses a mission to reduce the impact of streaming ‘fraud’ on platforms, including attempts by organized crime to exploit “fake” music reproductions using artificial intelligence to strip money from the royalty pool.
Further Insights On The Partnership
Commenting further on the new deal with Amazon, Sir Lucian Grange said: “We appreciate Amazon Music’s deep commitment to the interests of our artists and look forward to achieving our shared artist-centric goals through product innovation and accelerating the growth of their services.”
Steve Boom, VP of Audio, Twitch, and Games at Amazon, added: “UMG has always been a cooperative partner with Amazon Music, and as we continue to innovate and enable more connections between artists and fans through our products and exclusive content, we are redefining what it means to be a streaming service.”
“We are very pleased to expand our relationship with UMG, allowing us to collaborate on meaningful new ways for artists to deepen engagement with fans around the world while working together to protect the creativity of artists, songwriters, and publishers.”
Interestingly, the new agreement includes a pledge from UMG to collaborate with Amazon Music as it continues to expand into audio, including further innovation in audiobooks, audio-visual programming, and investment in live content.
The mention of audiobooks comes about a month after Amazon announced its production of Sound audiobooks available for Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers.
Unlike the separate (and now infamous) approach to audiobook packaging from Spotify earlier this year, Amazon’s announcement was welcomed with the approval of major music publishers.
Press releases issued by Amazon and UMG today reiterated their commitment to the “Development and Protection of Human Art” – a reference to addressing issues arising from AI-generated content.
