PRS announces new two-year Spotify deal

Here's some hot-off-the-press news from the wonderful world of collective copyright management. UK-based PRS for Music has confirmed that it has agreed a new two-year multi-territory licensing deal with Swedish music streaming and subscription service Spotify. According to a media release from PRS earlier this afternoon:

"Continuing the ongoing relationship between the pair, the recent deal allows the music streaming and subscription service to continue to offer its users a vast bundle of repertoire in the UK and Ireland (including repertoire from over 100 affiliated societies from around the globe), plus PRS for Music’s and IMRO’s [Irish] direct members’ repertoire across Europe.

The repertoire PRS for Music licenses to Spotify across Europe further includes musical works represented by a growing number of IMPEL publishers. IMPEL currently represents the rights of 40 leading independent publishers, a number that is anticipated to grow further before the end of the year.

The new deal is part of PRS for Music’s continued commitment to support and licence streaming services to ensure that its members are fairly remunerated for their works".

This blogger is having a little chuckle, recalling the dark cloud cast over the world of music copyright by the emergence of Spotify and the threats it posed, both to the accepted order of things and even to its own investors. Is this the same Spotify we blogged about here in October 2009, here in April 2010?  Incidentally, there's a reasonably good account of the evolution of Spotify from its earliest beginnings on Wikipedia here.