Presto Music calls on streaming services to match Fair Play initiative

UK classical and jazz e-commerce and streaming platform Presto Music has called on other streaming services to match its Fair Play initiative. The company, which pays up to 10 times more per album listen than other streaming services, claims that the ‘pay per play’ model is ‘unfair’ when applied to classical repertoire.

Presto Music’s Fair Play initiative means the streaming platform pays artists per second of music streamed, rather than ‘per play’ like other services. It is now calling on other streaming services to adopt a similar model to make sure performers in classical and jazz genres – where tracks can be significantly longer than the average pop or rock song – are paid fairly for their work.

Presto Music chief executive Chris O’Reilly said: ‘Our data makes it plain just how unfair the “pay per play” model is when it comes to a big chunk of classical repertoire – especially orchestral music, which is also typically expensive to record. To ensure the future viability of our industry it needs to pay fairly. We’re doing that and hope others will start doing so as well.’ 

O’Reilly also questions the reliability of payments made to composers and musicians, adding: ‘Like all streaming services, we report usage of Collecting Societies, who then match back plays to specific creators. However, poor database information – especially for classical works – can undermine the reliability of that matching, which means creators and musicians can miss out on revenue that’s then pooled and paid out to creators of other, better-indexed genres. We’re assessing the scale of the situation and how it can be addressed – we’ll never stop trying to help musicians and composers get a fairer deal.’