Spotify to end service in Uruguay due to bill requiring fair pay for artists

SAN FRANCISCO: Music streaming giant Spotify said it will phase out its service in Uruguay after the passing of a new music copyright bill requiring "fair and equitable remuneration" for authors, composers, performers, directors and screenwriters.

In October, the country’s parliament voted on a budget bill that included two new articles -- Article 284 and Article 285, reports The Guardian.

According to Article 284, social networks and the internet are to be added “as formats for which, if a song is reproduced, the performer is entitled to financial remuneration” -- namely if a link to a song is shared online.

Article 285 will put into copyright law the “right to a fair and equitable remuneration” for all “agreements entered into by authors, composers, performers, directors and screenwriters with respect to their faculty of public communication and making available to the public of phonograms and audiovisual recordings”.

In response, Spotify stated on November 20 that unless the 2023 Rendicion de Cuentas law is changed, the streaming platform "will, unfortunately, begin to phase out its service in Uruguay effective January 1, 2024" and will cease trading in the market in February 2024, the report mentioned.

It comes as Spotify reveals new streaming payment policies for artists and labels: cutting down on fraudulent streaming, increasing the minimum track length that must be paid for “noise” content such as rain and sea sounds, and -- controversially -- eliminating royalties for songs that have fewer than 1,000 streams, which average 2.39 pounds per year.