(Reuters) – Universal Music Group (AS :), the world’s largest music label, and Swedish streaming giant Spotify (NYSE 🙂 have reached a fresh multi-year music and music recording agreement, they said on Sunday.
The publishing agreement establishes a direct license between Spotify and UMG across Spotify’s current product portfolio in the U.S. and several other countries, they said in a statement.
“Artists, songwriters and consumers will benefit from new and evolving offerings, new paid subscription tiers, a bundle of music and non-music content, and a broader catalog of audio and visual content,” the companies said.
The partnership will ensure continued innovation, making music subscriptions even more attractive to a broader global audience, said Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek.
Spotify has laid off employees, discontinued podcasts and cut marketing expenses over the past year to enhance profitability. It also raised the prices of its plans in the US to capitalize on demand for premium products.
