Universal Music Group and Deezer announce initiative to explore new artist- and fan-focused streaming approach

Santa Monica & Paris, March 15, 2023 — Universal Music Group (UMG), the world leader in music-based entertainment, and Deezer, one of the largest independent music streaming platforms in the world, today announced an initiative between the two companies to investigate potential new economic models for music streaming that more fully recognize the value artists create.

Through this collaboration UMG and Deezer aim to develop new methods that holistically reward recording artists and songwriters for the value they create and to reimagine and update the engagement model for Deezer’s users and the artists they love. Deezer was one of the first platforms to commit to exploring alternative payment models to help assure artists are compensated fairly. This initiative underscores the company’s continuous and unwavering commitment to advancing these efforts across its platform.

The rise of Deezer and other subscription streaming services remains the most significant phenomenon to occur in the music industry in decades, driving growth and opening opportunity for artists and fans around the world. While streaming has become the main method of consumption for music fans globally, the streaming remuneration model has not evolved meaningfully during that time.  

The new initiative between Deezer and UMG will seek to better align the interests of artists, fans and streaming services and explore ways in which artists at every point in their careers and from every genre and geography can more fully benefit commercially from streaming. With a foundation in deep data analysis, the partnership will look at the benefits and evaluate the viability of different economic models aimed at driving subscriber growth, forging stronger bonds with music fans on the platform and developing commercial opportunities that benefit artists and the broader music community.

Deezer is devoted to highlighting the value of music, artistic creation and fan engagement, continuously developing new ways of connecting artists with fans. Projects and features include super fan rewards, in-app livestreaming and VOD concerts, alongside lyric translations, music quiz functionality and much more. Through this initiative with UMG, Deezer will gain insights that will inform future experiential features and monetization options.

Jeronimo Folgueira, CEO, Deezer, “As a key player in the music industry, we work with all labels to find ways to make the ecosystem fairer and help artists monetize their music better. The current system has clear issues that need to be addressed, such as increasing amounts of non-music tracks uploaded on platforms, poor quality covers with misspelt artists’ names and songs to ‘steal’ streams, and people trying to trick the system with the length of tracks. This hurts true artists, makes it harder for new ones to emerge and also damages the fan experience. We believe in quality and fairness at Deezer and with this initiative together with UMG we will look into how we can improve the model to everyone’s benefit. Music is extremely undervalued today and as part of the artist-centric discussion we are keen to find additional ways of increasing monetization, to the benefit of real artists, the labels and platforms like Deezer.” 

“Deezer has long advocated for a re-evaluation of subscription’s economic model,” said Michael Nash, UMG’s EVP, Chief Digital Officer. “We’re thrilled Jeronimo and his team are partnering with us to explore how we can evolve streaming for the benefit of the entire ecosystem of artists, labels, platforms and fans. Such collaboration is critical to the success of the Artist-Centric initiative. While there won’t be one uniform quick fix—subscriber acquisition and retention dynamics and metrics vary by platform—our partnership with Deezer will help accelerate this entire enterprise.”

Media contacts:

Deezer:
Jesper Wendel, Head of Global Communications
jwendel@deezer.com I +33 6 79 35 37 17

Universal Music Group:
James Murtagh-Hopkins, SVP, Global Communications
James.Murtagh-Hopkins@umusic.com

About Deez
Deezer is one of the largest independent music streaming platforms in the world, with more than 90 million tracks available in 180 countries, providing access to lossless HiFi audio, innovative recommendation technology and industry defining features. As the home of music, Deezer brings artists and fans together on a scalable and global platform, to unlock the full potential of music through technology. Founded in 2007 in Paris, Deezer is now a global company with a team of over 600 people based in France, Germany, UK, Brazil and the US, all brought together by their passion for music, technology and innovation. Deezer is listed on the professional segment of the Euronext Paris regulated market (Ticker: DEEZR. ISIN: FR001400AYG6) and is also part of the newly created Euronext Tech Leaders segment, dedicated to European high-growth tech companies, and its associated index.

About Universal Music Group
At Universal Music Group, we exist to shape culture through the power of artistry. UMG is the world leader in music-based entertainment, with a broad array of businesses engaged in recorded music, music publishing, merchandising and audiovisual content. Featuring the most comprehensive catalogue of recordings and songs across every musical genre, UMG identifies and develops artists and produces and distributes the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful music in the world. Committed to artistry, innovation and entrepreneurship, UMG fosters the development of services, platforms, and business models in order to broaden artistic and commercial opportunities for our artists and create new experiences for fans. For more information, visit www.universalmusic.com.