Spotify has had a controversial month – and their latest announcement may not help matters. The streaming platform will give content creators increased exposure if they agree to a reduced rate of royalties.
The placements will apply to two features: Spotify Radio and Autoplay. The former allows listeners to start a station based on a song or artist, and the latter automatically plays a track similar to whatever just ended.
As with previous songs appearing in Radio and Autoplay, tracks will be placed based on an algorithm that factors in time of day, other music in users’ playlists, and similar users’ preferences, among other things. Because of that, however, Spotify does not promise a certain amount of exposure for any given track.
“If the songs resonate with listeners, we’ll keep trying them in similar sessions,” reads a blog post on the Spotify website. “If the songs don’t perform well, they’ll quickly be pulled back. Listener satisfaction is our priority—we won’t guarantee placement to labels or artists, and we only ever recommend music we think listeners will want to hear.”
The announcement comes at a time when Spotify is under fire for the very royalty rates it proposes to reduce.
The company’s billionaire CEO, Daniel Ek, remarked in an August interview that “You can’t record every three to four years and think that’s going to be enough” to support oneself as a musician, prompting the launch of a Change.org petition calling for the company to pay out ¢1 per stream. The U.K. government has since launched an investigation into the impact of music streaming on the music industry, and the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers has started an initiative called “Justice At Spotify” to demand increased royalties.
Spotify has said that after testing the new feature on Radio and Autoplay, they may incorporate it into other parts of the platform.
Image credit: Sara Kurfeß
