Photo Credit: Alexander Shatov
One week and change after disclosing its $11 billion 2025 payout to the industry, Spotify has unveiled a “policy roadmap” designed to “build on the progress already made to grow music royalties further.”
The DSP just recently put out that not-so-subtle roadmap, which, against the backdrop of longstanding royalty-rate criticism, centers on two main “priorities.” The first of those priorities is straightforward enough: expand music revenue by, at the top level, tackling “unlicensed online platforms and fraudulent activity.”
Among other things, the proposed anti-piracy efforts would decommission “unlicensed music services” themselves, afford rightsholders “effective tools to combat online copyright infringement,” and leverage “law enforcement resources” to target fraudsters, Spotify relayed.
Next, taking aim at “AI misuse,” Spotify called out both unauthorized soundalike uploads (several having landed on proper artists’ pages) and “other forms of slop.” In the DSP’s view, industry-wide metadata standards, not service-specific solutions, would help remedy the intensifying problem.
“Implement industry-wide metadata standards to enable responsible disclosure for the different ways AI may have been used in music making, giving listeners consistent, meaningful information,” the appropriate proposal reads.
Rounding out the revenue-expansion priority, Spotify went ahead and took a shot at “programming mandates” (which it’s fending off in multiple nations) as well as “streaming taxes” (which the company doesn’t much care for) and the perceived operational detriment thereof.
Perhaps equally noteworthy (albeit for different reasons) is Spotify’s second roadmap objective, “strengthening the royalty infrastructure.”
Some of the proposals therein are neither new nor controversial; many in the industry have, of course, long been stressing the importance of optimizing (and, where necessary, correcting) metadata.
More interestingly, following a well-documented showdown with songwriters and publishers – plus adjacent royalties criticism from high-profile artists on the recorded side – the DSP also urged enhanced CMO and payouts transparency.
On the former front, this includes making available a collection of “administrative costs, matching accuracy, payout timelines, and revenue by revenue stream category” so as to “support [a] greater understanding of how different rights are managed by CMOs.”
Additionally, Spotify would like to see “shared industry benchmarks for efficiency, cost ratios, and resolution timelines,” besides “the use of cost-effective alternative dispute resolution mechanisms” to resolve licensing confrontations.
Finally, competing streaming platforms should likewise publish their payout particulars – thereby painting a more comprehensive picture of the landscape, per Spotify, which faced a congressional grilling not too long ago.
“Promote the regular publication of high-level royalty payout information by streaming services, including aggregate payouts to rightsholders and artist revenue trends, to support shared understanding and informed policymaking,” one proposal spells out.
