FROM THE WIZARD’S SLEEVE: SPOTIFY CELEBRATE MERLIN’S INDEPENDENT CATALOGUE

* Merlin Licensed Music Accounts For 1 in 10 Plays On Spotify
* Spotify Reaping The Benefits Of Indie Inclusion

Friday 10 July: – Music streaming service Spotify has heaped praise upon independent labels’ digital rights agency Merlin for the contribution its catalogue has made to the service’s popularity.

In a blog posted on the Spotify website, Paul Brown, the UK Managing Director for the service announced statistics that, in the UK, Merlin licensed repertoire accounts for 1 in 10 plays, whilst independent music as a whole represents over 20% of the music played. Further, a significant majority of the top 100 indie tracks played on Spotify in UK were from Merlin members.

Brown posted on his blog: “Merlin licensed over six thousand indie labels to us, including many of the world’s leading indies, including Beggars, Domino, Kontor New Media, Koch, Wagram, Epitaph, PIAS Finetunes, K7! and Warp which means we have some amazing independent music in our service that is proving to be hugely popular with Spotify users.

“When we launched we wanted to ensure we had the widest possible choice of great independent music as well as the important major label catalogues… the guys at Merlin listened and worked with us to license an incredible amount of quality independent music, which is so important to a new music service.”

Charles Caldas, CEO of Merlin said: “It is very satisfying to see these statistics confirm what we have always said about the value of the repertoire that Merlin’s labels bring to the market; this data now irrefutably proves that this is the most commercially significant set of rights outside that of the majors. Spotify’s statement also underlines the fact that their strategy of ensuring their users had access to the worlds most important indies from day one is reaping results. It is the best choice of music that music fans really care about and when provided with a service that offers them the choice, the Merlin members’ music proves to be an incredibly popular draw.

Merlin, the virtual fifth major, represents the world’s most important set of independent music rights. Artists signed to Merlin member labels include Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, Adele, Anthony & The Johnsons, Basement Jaxx, Battles, Bjork, DJ Khaled, Franz Ferdinand, Infadels, Jose Gonzalez, Maxïmo Park, Mogwai, Morcheeba, Royksopp, Soulwax, Stereo MCs, Tom Waits, Vampire Weekend and The White Stripes.

To read the blog from Paul Brown, visit http://www.spotify.com/blog/archives/2009/07/09/indie-content-from-merlin-and-other-indie-labels-proving-to-be-hugely-popular/#comments

For more information on Merlin, please contact gareth {at} namemusic.co(.)uk or sam {at} namemusic.co(.)uk

ABOUT MERLIN
Merlin, the virtual fifth major, represents the world’s most important set of independent music rights. Artists signed to Merlin member labels include Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, Adele, Anthony & The Johnsons, Basement Jaxx, Battles, Bjork, DJ Khaled, Franz Ferdinand, Infadels, Jose Gonzalez, Maxïmo Park, Mogwai, Morcheeba, Radiohead, Royksopp, Soulwax, Stereo MCs, Tom Waits, Vampire Weekend and White Stripes.

Merlin offers rights users the opportunity to license collectively the individually unlicensable by creating a single point of contact for those wishing to license from the vast global output of the independent sector, as well as ensuring its members’ have effective access to new and emerging revenue streams and that their rights are properly protected. Merlin represents by far the largest and most compelling basket of global independent rights, and so offers the most efficient means of licensing this repertoire.

A global organisation, its members’ market share in the US alone is over 9%, equivalent to that of the smaller major labels, whilst in Europe member labels released 72% of the top 60 independent albums released in the past three years and commanded a 75% UK market share of the top 75 independent albums in 2007.

Merlin’s burgeoning membership includes some of the music industry’s most iconic labels. In the UK, Beggars Group (the largest independent in the UK), Rough Trade, Domino, Cooking Vinyl, Century Media, Cherry Red, Kitchenware Records and Warp Records are all members. In the US KOCH (the largest independent in the US), Concord, Tommy Boy, Razor & Tie, Saddle Creek, Robbins Entertainment, Dualtone Music Group, Ghostly International and Stones Throw are represented.

In Europe members include [PIAS] Group (the largest pan-European independent), Blanco Y Negro (the largest independent in Spain), Epitaph, Edel, Naive, Wagram, Aggro Berlin, !K7, Kontor Records, Ministry of Sound (Germany), SPV and Gazell. In the rest of the world Merlin represents labels like Brazil’s MCD and South Africa’s Bula Music. Members also include distributors and aggregators such as Finetunes, State 51, Shock Entertainment, Virtual Label and Kontor.

Merlin operates as a stand-alone company owned by a not for profit foundation.

www.merlinnetwork.org