Spotify seems to be working on a feature that might remind you of TikTok. The music-streaming service is working on a remix feature in an attempt to capitalize on social media.
According to a report from Wall Street Journal, Spotify is said to be developing tools that would enable paid subscribers to “speed up, mash-up, and otherwise edit” songs from artists they like, which could then be saved and heard later.
One use case for the new tool is to enable Spotify users to adjust the speed of the tracks. These music modifications have already become very popular with young users on TikTok. According to content analysis firm Pex, 38% of songs were sped up or modified in 2023, compared to 25% in 2022.
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Will These New Spotify Features Be Free For Users?
As per the report from WSJ, Spotify will be making these more basic tools available through Spotify Premium subscription. Anything more exclusive could otherwise be made available through the pricier “Supremium” tier, which is also said to come with Spotify HiFi -- its much-awaited lossless audio feature.
While these modified remixes on TikTok might seem like a way to add some variety and creativity to the viral posts and memes, it’s believed that it could be an attempt to evade copyright protections or contractual disputes that would force the user to remove the track from the platform.
That said, performers and labels usually don’t get any money from these remixes as they are hard to find on these platforms. However, Spotify plans to open new sources of revenue for artists because remixes would be tied to the originals.
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Spotify Wants Performers To Make Royalties From Remixes
Unauthorized remixes aren’t a big problem on TikTok -- in November last year, Pex estimated that around 1% of all songs on streaming services such as Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, and Deezer are modified.
“We’re talking more than 1 million unlicensed, manipulated songs that are diverting revenue away from rightsholders this very minute,” said Pex’s senior VP of sales Larry Mills. “These can generate millions in cumulative revenue for the uploaders instead of the correct rightsholders.”
Spotify plans to make these user-generated remixes non-sharable to other apps and services. Instead, the company will make it easier for artists to make royalties for their work, without the need of releasing multiple versions of the song on the platform.
Performers like Isabel LaRosa have released a sped-up version of her music after noting the trend on TikTok, with the modified version of her song getting as many streams on Spotify as the original.