Universal is positioning this new model — which will begin rolling out for UMG artists in October and at first only in France, Deezer’s biggest market — as one that will benefit artists to the tune of a possible 10% boost in royalties, while addressing the increasingly-cluttered streaming ecosystem in which more than 100,000 audio tracks are uploaded each day.
If it’s such small amounts at play, two sources wondered what the point of the reallocation is at all. But others suggested that treating the smallest artists differently could make a material difference for those just beginning. “Everybody in the industry starts out with less than 1,000 monthly streams and 500 listeners,” says, CEO of indie trade group A2IM.
Setting aside the existential questions that these kinds of points of distinction raise — questions like, What is an artist? What constitutes music vs. noise? What should we as a society value and reward monetarily? — multiple sources expressed concern that this UMG/Deezer plan is just the beginning and that the goalposts to qualify as a “professional artist” could move higher, and make it much harder for independent artists to make any significant amount of money.
While there is some skepticism that this new model, and Deezer’s attempts to step up moderation on its platform, will address the fraud issue, removing white-noise content from the royalty pool is one aspect that everyone who spoke for this story agreed was a good step forward. Several sources also note that the reallocation of the existing royalty pool is less of an issue than growing the available pool with new revenue opportunities.