Record Union signs contract with YouTube Music

Next week, Record Union will start to offer artists and music creators to distribute their music to YouTube’s new streaming service YouTube Music. Record Union has also signed contracts with iMusica, Kuack Media Group, Juke and Qobuz who operate in i.e. Latin America, Europe and Africa. These streaming services will be available for Record Union users during fall/winter 2018.

In June, YouTube launched their new subscription based streaming service, YouTube Music. The platform has long been the world’s biggest music service but up until recently, visitors have been able to consume content on the platform for free. This has led to what the industry calls a “value gap” – a mismatch between the value that YouTube extract from music and the revenue returned to the music community. With their new subscription service, YouTube says their royalty payments will be on par with Apple Music and Spotify.

- At Record Union we’re aiming at making the music industry more democratic, accessible and transparent, and the fact that YouTube is now switching to a subscription model is a step in the right direction. The so-called “value gap” has been a problem within the music industry for years and our hopes are that this shift will lead to more fair payments for all artists and music creators on the platform, says Johan Svanberg, CEO at Record Union.

YouTube has more than one billion users and over two million artists and music creators share their music on the platform. Subscribers to YouTube Music will find songs, albums, playlists, radio, remixed, live performances, covers and music videos on the service – all organized and personalized.

Except YouTube Music, Record Union has also signed contracts with four other streaming services:

• iMusica. Operates in Latin America.
• Juke. Operates in Germany and the Netherlands.
• Kuack Media Group. Operates in Latin America, the Caribbean, South Pacific and Africa through a white label business model that lets mobile operators own their own music service.
• Qobuz. Operates in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, ItaIreland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Switzerland.

YouTube Music will be available for Record Union users mid next week and the other streaming services will be implemented during fall/winter 2018.

For more information, contact: Helena Aru, PR & Communications Manager
helena.aru@recordunion.com, +46709 18 95 01