Spotify & Universal Music Group Deal Means Non-Paying Users Will Have To Wait To Hear New Music

Spotify and Universal Music Group announced that they signed a global, multi-year license agreement. Among the upsides is that they will be "...delivering a comprehensive range of music experiences...collaborating on innovative marketing campaigns across Spotify’s platform".

What could be the downside? Daniel Ek, Chairman and CEO of Spotify, said, "...We know that not every album by every artist should be released the same way, and we've worked hard with UMG to develop a new, flexible release policy. Starting today, Universal artists can choose to release new albums on premium only for two weeks, offering subscribers an earlier chance to explore the complete creative work, while the singles are available across Spotify for all our listeners to enjoy..."

This means that premium (paying users) of Spotify will get some albums two weeks before free users. Read more about it here.