According to the Financial Times Universal Music Group are in talks with the major streaming services to change the existing streaming model.
This has implications not just for musicians but also for listeners and indeed for the future of new music throughout the world. With something like 100,000 new tracks being uploaded to Spotify each day, the use of bots and 31 second ‘songs’ to twist and distort royalties it’s essential that the whole music industry from artists to labels to streaming services wakes up and solves the problems.
Will they? Well, so far there’s no evidence that they will and as long as artists like me continue to use the existing system change, if any, will be slow and extremely painful. The other thing that is certain is that songwriters and performers will continue to see labels and streaming services get rich whilst we fail to generate even a basic income.