Spotify Premium subscribers get access to some albums two weeks early

Spotify has signed a deal with record company Universal Music. Part of the deal is that artists from the company can choose to make new albums available only to paying subscribers in a two-week period.

If Universal Music artists decide to make their album available only to Premium subscribers for two weeks, the singles will still be available to users without a subscription. Another part of the deal is that Universal Music will have ‘unprecedented access’ to data from Spotify. The press release doesn’t clarify exactly what dates the record company will receive, but the exchange should allow for the development of new tools for artists and labels to “better bond” with fans.

Last month there was already a rumor about making new albums exclusively for paying users. With the announcement, that seems to be coming out now. For the time being, it concerns albums from one record company, but the streaming service is probably negotiating with more companies about similar deals. Universal Music Group is one of the ‘big three’ record companies. The other two are Sony Music and Warner Music Group. The three together represent almost the entire music industry.

The music offer on Spotify is still the same for all users. The free version does have limitations compared to Premium. For example, there are advertisements and users can skip limited numbers. The offline storage of music is also reserved for paying customers.