Thanks to Spotify’s new agreement with the agency Merlin, the songs of indie artists on Spotify will take longer to appear.
Spotify has become serious, and that implies that free users from now on are undesirable; That is what we can make clear from the news of the last two weeks.
It all started with the agreement with Universal; whereby free Spotify users will not be able to listen to Universal artist tracks for the first two weeks. It is a measure clearly aimed at promoting the transition to a premium paid account.
Indie artist songs on Spotify will also be blocked
Today it has been confirmed that this was not an exceptional case; Spotify will try to reach the same deal with all the labels, and beyond. As proof, the agreement announced today with Merlin, which represents thousands of independent record labels from around the world.
Thus, news from the independent sector will also be exclusive to Premium users; This will last two weeks from its launch, so if you want to be up to date on music, a free Spotify account is no longer useful.
180 spin for Spotify for two good reasons
This is more than just a 180 turn for Spotify; Traditionally it has tried that the differences between Premium and free accounts do not affect the available catalog. But everything indicates that the company has had no choice for two reasons.
The first reason is the pressure of the labels; Especially from record companies whose agreements are expiring and now want to improve them. The second, that Spotify itself wants to go publicAnd you won’t be able to attract investors if you don’t show that you can get more revenue from paid users.
If everything continues as it is now, Free Spotify user is in danger of extinction; Once Spotify has started separating the two user types, it is inevitable that it will focus on the payers.