There’s evidence that Spotify is punishing artists for Apple ‘exclusives’

Following reports Spotify punishes artists for signing exclusives with other services, the streaming giant has denied the accusation. However, a claim by an artist, a report by MBW, and an alleged conversation between Spotify and two major label executives suggestotherwise.

According to The New York Times, artists who ink exclusives with rivals like Apple Music or Tidal haven’t been treated equally for over a year. The Times reports Spotify recently told two major label execs about a new policy it had instated for the promotion of those artists. Crucially, the new policy means those acts would not be as prominently featured on the platform or included in as many playlists as the artists who hadn’t inked exclusives with competitors.

Another accusation claims Spotifysuppressestracks from artists that have previously signed exclusives with rivals in its search results.

Bloomberg included a claim made by the representative of an unnamed singer-songwriter in its report. It said the artist cancelled a single premiere on Zane Lowe’s Beats One show (Apple Music) for fear it wouldn’t receive promotion on Spotify afterward.

While Spotify hasn’t denied all the accusations of favouritism yet, a spokesperson has told media the claim it buries tracks in its search results are “unequivocally false.”

Music Business Worldwide has published a case study on Spotify’s reception of Katy Perry’s new single Rise, which was released as a windowed iTunes and Apple Musicexclusive on July 15.

MBW said the fact Rise didn’t chart high in key territories like the US (#11), the UK (#25), Germany (#39), Italy (#51) and The Netherlands (#95) – despite it featuring on NBC’s US TV coverage of the Olympics – means “Spotify is blackballing these artists on its top playlists.”

Rise hit #1 on the ARIA chart on July 31, however unlike Perry’s past singles like Roar (nine weeks at #1) and Firework (two weeks at #3), it fell out of the Top 10 the following week and currently sits at #24.

As pointed out by MBW, Rise hasn’t been included in Spotify’s biggest playlist, Today’s Top Hits (which has 10.2m followers), nor did it get listed on New Music Friday. It did, however, get a place on Spotify’s Pop Rising playlist(443k followers), but not until over a month after release.

Rise’s absence from Spotify’s biggest playlists has affected its streams. The track currently sits at #127 on Spotify’s Global 200, the platform’s ranking of the most streamed tracks worldwide.

Spotify did not respond to TMN’s request for comment at time of publishing.

With 39 million paying subscribers, Spotify’s reach far eclipses Apple Music (15 million) and Tidal (4 million). The sheer pulling power of Spotify alone could very well be behind Universal Music Group’s reported decision to ban ‘exclusives’ for its artists. As reported in TMN last week, UMG’s CEO Lucian Grainge was apparently behind the all-staff email ordering a stop to exclusive deals with streaming services.

Retailers in the UK have applauded Grainge’s sentiments. The Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA), which represents UK digital music services and music retailers, said exclusives ultimately confuse consumers and work against the growth of the streaming sector.

Interestingly, on August 26, Britney Spears’ latest LP Glory didn’t turn up exclusively on Apple Music like she said it would.

#Glory. My new album & the beginning of a new era. Available 8/26 on @AppleMusic. Pre-order tonight at midnight ET. pic.twitter.com/pkZZkC2QLR

— Britney Spears (@britneyspears) August 3, 2016

The record was made available on music streaming services last Friday, including Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon Music, suggesting Sony Music are also questioning the benefits of the ‘exclusive’.

The accusations against Spotify come amidst itslicensing negotiations with the three major music companies, Sony, Warner and Universal.MBWclaims Spotify pays 55%of its revenue share to labels (not including publishing money), but that it wants to pay less.

Earlier this month Spotify’s new global head of creator services, Troy Carter told Billboard: “exclusives are bad for artists, bad for consumers, and bad for the whole industry.”

Carter is, of course right. Frank Ocean’s move to hand over the exclusive streaming rights of Blonde to Apple Music turned sour when it popped up on multiple sites as an illegal download. According to Digital Music News, Ocean’s ARIA #1 sophomore LP has been illegally downloaded over 1 million times.