CENTURY MEDIA IS BACK ON SPOTIFY!

UPDATE, 1:00pm EDT: Century Media has issued an official press release on their decision to re-join Spotify. Read it right here.

Original Post:

After numerous emails from MetalSucks readers this morning reporting that Century Media artists had begun appearing on Spotify, we’ve confirmed it with our own four eyes and an affirmative response from a CM employee: Century Media has officially re-entered the Spotify building.

A quick search shows that Lacuna Coil’s entire catalogue (except for their newest album), 3 Inches of Blood’s Century releases (including their newest), Tesseract, Vildhjarta, and Nevermore’s full catalogue are now streaming on the service, among others. Nachtmystium’s Century releases and a handful of other Century artists are not listed; it’s unclear whether albums are being considered for Spotify on a case-by-case basis or if the process of adding the label’s catalogue will simply take some more time.

This is the right call for Century. Spotify per-stream payouts may be startlingly low, but the opportunity for new music discovery and exponential social network visibility far outweigh any lost revenue, and both will benefit the company and their artists long-term. Spotify is also incredibly effective in stamping out piracy by making it completely unnecessary.

A label spokesperson for Century has confirmed that InsideOut Music, Superball Music and People Like You Records — labels that operate under the Century umbrella — have also rejoined the service. InsideOut, home to artists such as Devin Townsend, Fates Warning, King’s X, The Safety Fire and more, is probably of the most interest to MetalSucks readers.

Two lingering questions remain:

1) What ultimately sparked CM’s brass to reverse their stance? I want an honest answer with hard facts of went on in backroom conversations, not a generic blanket statement with vague assertions of “seeing the benefit.”

2) Century previously claimed they were holding out for a better deal, citing payouts that were unfair to them and only favorable for major labels. Did Century end up negotiating a better deal, or did they accept the standard deal that was previously offered?

With Century back on board, it will be interesting to see whether Spotify holdouts Metal Blade, Prosthetic and Sumerian re-join Spotify in the coming weeks and months.

We’ll keep you up to date with any official statement from Century Media.

-VN