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Sony/ATV signs new Europe-wide licence with Spotify

By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 18 February 2015

Sony/ATV boss Marty Bandier told the Pre-Grammy Gala earlier this month that he had made it his “number one priority to ensure songwriters are fairly paid for what they do”.

Well, good news songwriters everywhere (though mainly those signed to Sony/ATV and whose songs are classified as ‘Anglo-American catalogue’), because Sony/ATV has just signed a new pan-European licensing deal with Spotify covering its Anglo-American repertoire that delivers, says the publisher itself, “fair compensation to songwriters”. Of course, this being a digital deal, no one can ever know what exactly that means, though if I was a Sony/ATV-signed songwriter I’d be expecting at least a Volvo V70 to appear in my drive-way sometime this week.

Bandier, of course, is one of the highest profile music publishing chiefs to complain about the disparity in the royalties streaming services pay to record labels versus music publishers. Overseeing the single biggest songs catalogue in the world, in theory he should have a pretty strong negotiating hand when pushing for more cash for his company and the songwriters it represents, though in the US he is constrained somewhat by copyright law and the so called ‘consent decrees’ that govern collective licensing.

In Europe too there are complications, because – unlike on the sound recordings side – the collecting societies can’t be totally cut out of the proceedings, because by convention they, rather than the publishers, control the ‘public performance’ element of the song copyright. Though there is more flexibility when it comes to the ‘reproduction’ element, a stream being both a reproduction and a public performance (or, technically under UK law, a ‘communication to the public’). So as the streaming sector started to gain momentum the big publishers started negotiating direct on the ‘mechanicals’.

Quite what the new Sony/ATV deal covers, and what it means revenue share and royalties wise for the publisher and its songwriters, isn’t clear. But Spotify says it’s happy with the new arrangement, with its Chief Content Officer Ken Parks noting: “We are very pleased to announce our continued partnership with Sony/ATV, home of some of the greatest songwriters in the world. We look forward to continuing our work together to deliver great music to fans around the world and fair compensation to songwriters for their terrific work”.

Meanwhile Bandier himself is, obviously “thrilled” about the whole thing. Said the Sony/ATV supremo: “We are thrilled to have renewed our European agreement with Spotify, the world’s largest music subscription service. As streaming services continue to grow, Sony/ATV is delighted to be continuing our relationship with Spotify at this pivotal moment for the music industry”.

He went on: “We share two important goals – growing the market for paid-for music subscription services for the benefit of music lovers everywhere while delivering fair compensation to our songwriters for the use of their songs. We believe we have accomplished that with this agreement”.

So that’s nice. Though here’s a prediction: this ain’t going to stop the songwriters griping about their split of the digital pie.