Spotify pulls out of Uruguay following fair pay deal
After renegotiating various deals regarding how much artists get paid, Spotify has announced that it will be parting ways in Uruguay.
This follows a massive structure change in Spotify’s payment plan, where little to no residuals will be paid to smaller acts. As part of the recent plan, only the highest streamed artists on the platform will be able to see any sort of residuals for the number of times their songs are played.
The parting with Uruguay follows the recent passing of a bill regarding the residuals from streaming entitled Rendición de Cuentas. As part of the deal, Uruguayan performers would be given equal opportunity and equitable pay when streaming any of their recorded output.
When talking about the disagreement over royalties, one Spotify spokesperson said, “Changes that could force Spotify to pay twice for the same music would make our business of connecting artists and fans unsustainable, and regrettably leaves us no choice but to stop being available in Uruguay.”
Elsewhere, the spokesperson talked about how Rendición de Cuentas didn’t clarify whether they could continue undergoing their current practices. As a result, Spotify announced that their services will no longer be available in the Latin American territory as of January 1st, 2024.
As part of Spotify’s latest policy changes, any artist getting paid for their music being played on their platform would have to meet a certain threshold of plays and an elongated play time on any given song. These new rules were meant to combat any fraudulent streams and to combat streams of various white noise.
Further in the statement, the spokesperson explained, “Spotify already pays nearly 70% of every dollar it generates from music to the record labels and publishers that own the rights for music and represent and pay artists and songwriters.”
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