Spotify will boost artists’ music more in exchange for an even lower royalty rate

Spotify is rolling out a new feature set to allow artists and labels to prioritise certain releases and increase exposure in the playlisting algorithm.

“In this new experiment, artists and labels can identify music that’s a priority for them, and our system will add that signal to the algorithm that determines personalized listening sessions,”a press release, shared on November 2nd reads. “This allows our algorithms to account for what’s important to the artist.”

Spotify will not charge artists an upfront fee to prioritise the release they are promoting. Instead, the tool will require labels and rights holders to exchange exposure for a reduced royalty rate. “Labels or rights holders agree to be paid a promotional recording royalty rate for streams in personalized listening sessions where we provided this service.”

The statement outlines that Spotify will begin experimenting with this new service on its Radio and Autoplay formats — where listeners are most receptive to listening to new music. The streaming service will take the learnings gleaned from this and consider expanding to other personalised features on Spotify.

This new announcement arrives just one week after over 4,000 artists joined forces in the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers to launch a campaign against Spotify, dubbed “Justice At Spotify.”

The campaign outlined a number of demands including raising the streaming royalty to one cent per stream, adopting a user-centric payment model and transparency on all closed-door contracts.

“Spotify is the most dominant platform on the music streaming market. The company behind the streaming platform continues to accrue value, yet music workers everywhere see little more than pennies in compensation for the work they make,” the UMAW outlined.

“With the entire live music ecosystem in jeopardy due to the coronavirus pandemic, music workers are more reliant on streaming income than ever.”

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.