Last.fm, the music-based social network, and neighboring rights collecting society PPL have forged a performance royalty agreement.
Through the U.K. licensing deal, unveiled today, artists and labels represented by PPL will be able to collect royalties on tracks streamed on Last.fm’s radio service.
“It’s fantastic that we’re able to work with PPL in the U.K. to ensure that artists and labels are paid when their music is streamed on Last.fm,” comments Martin Stiksel, Last.fm co-founder. “The deal shows how committed we are to making Last.fm work for copyright holders as well as listeners.”
Last month, Last.fm introduced an “Artist Royalty” program for independent artists, enabling artists to upload their music directly to the service and receive payment for each stream.
“Alongside this new deal with PPL,” Last.fm said in a statement issued today, “it means that all artists, signed or unsigned, will be able to earn revenue from their music via Last.fm.”
Last.fm to date has compiled some 20 million unique monthly listeners across 240 countries. CBS bought the company last May for $280 million. Last.fm last month finalized licensing agreements with all four major record labels, plus a number of independents labels and their aggregators.
