According to Forbes, Spotify and the National Music Publishers’ Association are partnering on a new opt-in portal for the NMPA’s 2,800+ members to license expanded audiovisual rights in the U.S. The portal opens November 11, 2025 and runs through December 19, 2025, offering direct licensing deals that promise higher royalty payouts for independent publishers and songwriters. In exchange, Spotify gets rights to build new video features connecting artists and fans. This partnership comes despite years of conflict between the streaming giant and publishers, including recent NMPA projections that Spotify’s bundling practices could cost publishers over $3.1 billion through 2032. Spotify currently has 281 million premium subscribers and over 713 million monthly active users globally.
What’s really happening here
Here’s the thing – this looks like a classic case of “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.” After years of public fighting, lawsuits, and takedown campaigns, both sides are realizing there’s more money in cooperation than conflict. Spotify gets to expand beyond audio streaming into video features without constant legal headaches. Publishers get a new revenue stream that doesn’t depend on the controversial per-stream rates that have been the source of so much anger.
But let’s be real – this isn’t about sudden friendship. The timing is everything. Spotify’s facing pressure from all sides – competition from Apple Music and YouTube Music, artist complaints about payouts, and now publishers threatening massive revenue losses. They needed to make peace somewhere. And for publishers? They’ve been screaming about streaming economics for years. Getting a piece of Spotify’s video ambitions gives them something tangible to show their members.
Spotify’s video ambitions
This deal basically confirms what we’ve all suspected – Spotify is going all-in on video. They’ve been experimenting with video podcasts, Canvas looping visuals, and now they’re clearing the rights to do even more. Think about it – every music streaming service is basically the same catalog. The differentiation happens in features, discovery, and artist-fan connections. Video is the next frontier.
So what could this mean? We might see more music videos integrated directly into the app. Maybe behind-the-scenes content from artists. Possibly even live performances or exclusive video premieres. The key is they’re building this with publisher cooperation from the start, which means they’re learning from past mistakes where they just launched features and dealt with the legal fallout later.
Why independents matter
Notice how this deal specifically calls out independent publishers and songwriters? That’s strategic. The major labels already have their direct deals with Spotify – they’ve got the leverage to negotiate separately. But the thousands of smaller publishers? They’ve been getting the short end of the stick for years.
By creating this opt-in portal, Spotify gets to show it’s playing nice with the little guys while building a unified system that works for everyone. It’s good PR and good business. The question is whether the actual payouts will be meaningful or just another drop in the bucket for struggling songwriters. We’ll have to wait and see what the numbers look like when the portal launches next year.
