Deezer and French collecting society Sacem have announced that they are exploring how they might apply an artist-centric streaming model to song rights.
This follows the launch earlier this month of Deezer’s pilot scheme in France which involves changing the way the streaming service allocates its revenues to individual tracks on the recordings side.
“Sacem is a world leader in managing music authors rights, and we’re delighted to join forces to explore how we can develop the way publishing is monetised in the age of streaming”, says Deezer CEO Jeronimo Folgueira. “Songwriters, composers and publishers play a crucial role in the music industry as the creative driving force behind the songs we love, and it’s time to evolve how we reward these efforts”.
Sacem CEO Cécile Rap-Veber adds: "Sacem has always anticipated changes in the music market and been a pioneer in seizing every opportunity to better redistribute rights and maximise the value of its members' works. By proposing an alternative remuneration model via 'artist-centric', we welcome Deezer's desire to put creators and publishers back at the heart of their concerns. This is why we felt it was essential to launch this in-depth study, which we hope will make it possible to increase the value of streaming for our members".
Through the partnership, the two organisations say that they will analyse streaming data from Deezer’s platform to assess the viability of different economic models for songwriters, composers and publishers.
Deezer announced plans to switch to what it calls an artist-centric model for recordings in September. Confirmation that it is now looking at doing the same for song rights comes alongside the news that Spotify is also looking at changing how it allocates royalties on the recordings side, with its plans having some parallels with Deezer’s.
