The streaming services battle continues as Spotify inks a deal with Universal which will see albums belonging to Universal artists being available to stream to premium Spotify users two weeks before free users.
The delay in receiving an album would in theory encourage any free user to cough up and pay for a subscription, therefore generating more revenue for artists and labels.
Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek said, “We know that not every album by every artist should be released the same way, and we’ve worked hard with UMG to develop a new, flexible release policy.
“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.”
Interestingly, Universal is the first major to have signed on the dotted lines, with rumours of Warner and Sony to follow suit soon.