OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE REGARDING CENTURY MEDIA AND SPOTIFY
Century Media has issued an official press release regarding this morning’s news that the label has put their artists’ music back on Spotify.
The press release explains the label’s impetus for re-joining the service and clarifies our question about how much of the label’s music will appear on the service (answer: all of it!). However, the press release falls short in two areas: 1) It fails to explain specific reasons for re-joining the service, offering only vague reasons such as “fan sentiment and continued discussions with Spotify.” 2) It does not reveal whether Century was able to negotiate a better deal with Spotify than previously offered, a former sticking point.
MetalSucks has put in a request for an interview with Century Media CEO Oliver Withöft on the topic of Spotify but have not yet received a response.
Read the full press release below:
Century Media Records and its associated labels “InsideOut Music,” “Superball Music” and “People Like You Records” are pleased to announce that their entire repertoire is now available on Spotify.
“Spotify offers great tools to discover new artists. We feel that this is essential for our promising newcomers. In that respect, Spotify gives those artists a very good forum,” states Antje Lange, general manager Europe.
After the initial decision to pull the Century Media catalog from Spotify, label execs were impressed by the resulting debate, especially the messages and comments by the thousands of fans who weighed in on the issue. Fan sentiment and continued discussions with Spotify have resulted in the label reversing its initial decision.
“We respect that music fans wanted to have instant access to our catalog via Spotify,” states President of North America Don Robertson. “But we also have to consider the rights of our artists. After practicing some due diligence, we’re moving ahead confident that both the artist and the fan are being fairly served by this developing platform.”
Steve Savoca, Head of Content at Spotify, adds: “Spotify’s global growth provides a powerful platform for artists to connect directly with our hugely passionate audience. The return of Century Media’s fantastic catalog is cranking metal music to our ears.”
Century Media will continue to evaluate Spotify as a music discovery tool and welcome the fan’s opportunity to preview a release in its entirety before deciding to buy a copy.
Thomas Waber, President of Superball and InsideOut Music sums it up: “We are looking forward to our fans being able to access our music again through the premium streaming service in the world. Hopefully they will discover great new music as a result!”
-VN
