From The Wizard’s Sleeve: Spotify Celebrate Merlin’s Independent Catalogue

Music streaming service Spotify has heaped praise upon independent labels’ digital rights agency Merlin for the contribution its catalogue has made to the service’s popularity.In a blog posted on the Spotify website, Paul Brown, the UK Managing Director for the service announced statistics that, in the UK, Merlin licensed repertoire accounts for 1 in 10 plays, whilst independent music as a whole represents over 20% of the music played. Further, a significant majority of the top 100 indie tracks played on Spotify in UK were from Merlin members.Brown posted on his blog: “Merlin licensed over six thousand indie labels to us, including many of the world’s leading indies, including Beggars, Domino, Kontor New Media, Koch, Wagram, Epitaph, PIAS Finetunes, K7! and Warp which means we have some amazing independent music in our service that is proving to be hugely popular with Spotify users.“When we launched we wanted to ensure we had the widest possible choice of great independent music as well as the important major label catalogues… the guys at Merlin listened and worked with us to license an incredible amount of quality independent music, which is so important to a new music service.”Charles Caldas, CEO of Merlin said: “It is very satisfying to see these statistics confirm what we have always said about the value of the repertoire that Merlin’s labels bring to the market; this data now irrefutably proves that this is the most commercially significant set of rights outside that of the majors. Spotify’s statement also underlines the fact that their strategy of ensuring their users had access to the worlds most important indies from day one is reaping results. It is the best choice of music that music fans really care about and when provided with a service that offers them the choice, the Merlin members’ music proves to be an incredibly popular draw."Merlin, the virtual fifth major, represents the world's most important set of independent music rights. Artists signed to Merlin member labels include Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, Adele, Anthony & The Johnsons, Basement Jaxx, Battles, Bjork, DJ Khaled, Franz Ferdinand, Infadels, Jose Gonzalez, Maxïmo Park, Mogwai, Morcheeba, Royksopp, Soulwax, Stereo MCs, Tom Waits, Vampire Weekend and The White Stripes.To read the blog from Paul Brown, click here.Download a PDF of the press release here.