Spotify's Official Remix Coming Soon To Get Artists Paid (Sort Of)

Young music lovers often create their own mixes of songs for publication on social networks, especially TikTok. The problem is that artists don't get paid for these unofficial mixes, and that's what Spotify's upcoming song remix feature aims to (sort of) change …

WSJ quotes its own sources.

The audio streaming company is developing tools that will allow subscribers to speed up, merge and otherwise edit songs from their favorite artists, according to people familiar with the discussions [&#8230 ;]

Fans—especially those in their teens to 20s—regularly manipulate songs for social media, adding their own style and then combining the most memorable bits into viral dance challenges, tutorials and memes. But artists and labels don't often get paid for altered versions of their songs, which are hard to track and often spread across platforms including TikTok and Instagram Reels.

The deal seems a bit odd. First, it will reportedly require a Spotify Premium subscription to gain any access to the feature. This means that free users will likely continue to create their own unofficial mixes.

Secondly, to get full access to the features you may need an even more expensive “super premium” version; level is reportedly in development.

Finally, it won't allow mixes to be shared on apps like TikTok and Instagram (the most common uses), but only on Spotify itself.

However, the potential good news for artists is that these remixes often take on a life of their own. When you upload to Spotify and listen, royalties go to the uploader, not the artist. This will change with the release of official remixes.

Some artists are already responding to the remix trend.

Singer-songwriter Isabelle LaRosa noticed the popularity of up-tempo songs on TikTok and decided to release faster versions of her songs along with the original recordings. Fans listened to the sped-up version of her most popular song on Spotify, “I'm Yours,” almost as often as the original version. […]

Major artists have also begun releasing multiple versions of the same song to satisfy fans' appetite for varied iterations while ensuring they receive royalties from the tracks. At the end of February, SZA released a new single, “Saturn,” plus four additional versions: live, uptempo, a cappella and instrumental.