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"As part of my new contract with Universal Music Group, I asked that any sale of their Spotify shares result in a distribution of money to their artist, non-recoupable," Swift wrote in an Instagram post. "They have generously agreed to this, at what they believe will be much better terms than paid out previously by other major labels." Swift added that the Spotify provision "meant more to me than any other deal point" of the new contract, which also gives her ownership of her masters going forward, and that it's a sign "we are headed toward positive change for creators - a goal I'm never going to stop trying to help achieve, in whatever ways I can."
For Swift to use her status as one of the world's most influential (i.e. revenue-driving) artists as a negotiating platform isn't new: She demanded that Apple make sure artists were compensated during Apple Music free trials in 2015 and went on a three-year boycott of Spotify over the relatively meager royalty payouts from its free tier. (In a volte-face, she restored her catalog on Spotify last summer.)
But it further cements the growing trend of artists in the streaming-driven era taking on more of the power previously held by record labels. Music lawyer Gregor Pryor told the Guardian that Swift's enforcement of Spotify proceeds not being counted against existing debts marks the kind of artist-as-businessperson deal that wouldn't have been possible in years prior. "Jay-Z did it with Tidal … Artists are behaving in a way that is more directed towards furthering their returns versus what the traditional machine - of labels and publishers - might have been entitled to," he said.
Per Music Business Worldwide calculations off of a 2008 financial filing, Universal has a stake of about 3.5 percent in Spotify, which is worth $1 billion under Spotify's current valuation of around $28 billion.