Spotify to allow users to change speed of and remix songs “while generating new revenue for artists”

Spotify is reportedly planning on introducing a feature to allow users to slow down, speed up and remix songs on the platform.

• READ MORE: Artists on the challenges of 2023 and hopes for 2024: “I just want to see us getting paid for selling records”

The developments have been detailed in a new report by the Wall Street Journal, who say that the streaming service is looking to experiment with tools that will allow users to manipulate existing songs on the platform.

The report suggests that users will be able to edit and mash together tracks to create modified versions of songs that can them be added to “virtual collections” on Spotify, but which will then not be available to share on external platforms.

The Wall Street Journal suggests that “discussions about the tools are early and licensing agreements have yet to be worked out,” but that they hope the additions will “appeal to young users, while generating new revenue for artists.”

At the start of this month, the streaming platform officially demonetised all songs with less than 1000 streams, having first announced the policy last year in the ‘Modernising Our Royalty System’ report.

According to Spotify data, there are around 100 million songs on the service, yet only around 37.5 million meet the new requirements to generate revenue.

Spotify said that 99.5 per cent of all streams on the platform “are of tracks that have above 1,000 streams.” They went on to claim that demonetising the tracks won’t result in a “change to the size of the music royalty pool being paid out to rights holders”.

It argued that instead it will “use the tens of millions of dollars annually to increase the payments to all eligible tracks, rather than spreading it out into $0.03 payments.”

Spotify also went on to say it requires a minimum number of unique listeners now if royalties are to apply – a measure brought in to attempt to stop the rise in fake streams after a rise in fraudulent activity was detected.

The company has also recently announced that it will be raising the price of its monthly premium membership by more than nine per cent, to £11.99 in the UK and $12 in the US.

Speaking to City A.M., a Spotify spokesperson said that the subscription price hike was done “so that we can keep innovating and delivering value to fans, the music industry, and creators on our platform, we occasionally update our prices”.

It all comes after Spotify announced that it was cutting down 17 per cent of its workforce in order to save costs at the end of last year. That was after an earlier decision to lay off another 6 per cent of its staff at the start of 2023, which at the time it said was to promote “speed”.

Chief executive Daniel Ek said he made the “difficult” decision as economic growth has “slowed dramatically”. Spotify employs around 9,000 people, meaning 1,500 jobs were estimated to have been lost in the current round of layoffs.

Recently, Nine Inch Nails‘ Trent Reznor hit out against streaming, saying it has “mortally wounded” many artists.

“I think the terrible payout of streaming services has mortally wounded a whole tier of artists that make being an artist unsustainable,” he told GQ in a new interview.

“And it’s great if you’re Drake, and it’s not great if you’re Grizzly Bear,” he continued. “And the reality is: Take a look around. We’ve had enough time for the whole ‘All the boats rise’ argument to see they don’t all rise. Those boats rise. These boats don’t. They can’t make money in any means. And I think that’s bad for art.”

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