Universal Music Group and Spotify strike new agreement

(Reuters) - Universal Music Group (UMG), the world's biggest music label, and Swedish streaming giant Spotify have reached a new multi-year agreement for recorded music and music publishing, they said on Sunday.

The publishing agreement establishes a direct license between Spotify and UMG across Spotify's current product portfolio in the U.S. and several other countries, they said in a statement.

"Artists, songwriters and consumers will benefit from new and evolving offers, new paid subscription tiers, bundling of music and non-music content, and a richer audio and visual content catalog," the companies said.

The partnership will ensure constant innovation, making music subscriptions even more attractive to a broader worldwide audience, Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek said.

Spotify has laid off employees, pulled back podcasts and cut marketing spending over the past year to boost profitability. It has also raised prices of its U.S. plans to capitalize on demand for its premium products.

(Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; Editing by Richard Chang)

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