NEW YORK (CelebrityAccess) — Spotify is moving into the world of windowed content releases, with the streaming giant making country music performer Jason Aldean’s latest album only available to premium users for its first two weeks.
Spotify had previously been an outspoken opponent of subscription-gated content availability but changed their tune earlier this month with the announcement of a new deal with Universal Music Group which saw the music streamer drop its objection to windowing.
“Starting today, Universal artists can choose to release new albums on premium only for two weeks, offering subscribers an earlier chance to explore the complete creative work, while the singles are available across Spotify for all our listeners to enjoy,” Ek said on April 4th, in announcing the deal.
Other major labels, including Warner Music, Sony Music and Indie lable group Merlin are also reported to have renegotiated similar arrangments with Spotify. A provision in the agreement stipulated that Spotify can qualify for reduced royalty payments if they hit certain streaming targets.
“In a market this dynamic, one evolving more rapidly than ever before, success requires creative and continual re-evaluation of how best to bring artists’ music to fans … The only constants must be great music and fair compensation for artists and creators,” UMG Chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge said in announcing the new pact.
According to Hypebot, YouTube will also be testing content windowing with Aldean’s latest record. The album will be available on the video streaming service’s paid YouTube Red platform, while its content ID program attempts to keep the latest tracks from being uploaded to the freemium version of YouTube.
