Spotify and Universal Music partner up to expand catalog and features

Universal Music Group, the biggest record company in the world, has two important divisions focused on Latin America

Spotify headquarters New York — Spotify brand at 4 World Trade Center facade, the company's headquarters in New York. Photo: Jer123/Shutterstock

23.Jul.2020 10:35 BRT

UMG is the largest record label worldwide;
Universal was already a partner of Spotify for developing tools like Marquee and Canvas.

Spotify made a partnership with the largest record label in the world, Universal Music Group (UMG). The deal is expected to further expand its catalog and result in new tools. It could also bring novelties for Latin America, since the region has seen the launch of new features of the audio streaming platform and is the home turf for two importante divisions of UMG: Universal Music Brazil and Universal Music Latin Entertainment.

While one is focused in Brazil, Universal Music Latin Entertainment is a record label specializing in the production and distribution of Latin music in Mexico, the United States and Puerto Rico. “With this new agreement, the companies advance their industry-leading partnership, reflecting a shared commitment to music’s continued growth, deeper music discovery experiences and collaboration on new, state-of-the-art marketing campaigns across Spotify’s platform”, said Spotify on a press statement.

Given our commitment to innovation and early adoption of music technologies, and Spotify’s leadership in the development of forward-thinking tools, our new partnership will provide our artists with new and powerful opportunities to connect with fans on Spotify’s growing platform. Working together, our teams will expand and accelerate our collaborative efforts to deliver artist-focused initiatives, strategic marketing campaigns and new offerings to provide exciting new experiences for fans worldwide.
Lucian Grainge, Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group

Universal will also deepen its leading role as an early adopter of future products and provide valuable feedback to Spotify’s development team. Daniel Ek, Chairman & CEO of Spotify, said that Universal has been a partner since an early experimentation with Marquee, a commercial tool that helps listeners connect with new music, and Canvas, a short video feature.

“With today’s announcement, we will expand on this level of early stage innovation and further strengthen our partnership and shared vision for helping advance artists at all stages of their careers. We’ve said all along, the goal of our Marketplace strategy is to harness Spotify’s ability to connect artists with fans on a scale that has never before existed and bring new opportunities to the industry. Together, we look forward to reinvesting in and building new tools and offerings for artists around the world”, he said.