We will continue to drill down on what this actually means, but it’s a huge step in the right direction. It’s another fairness making step by a major label along the path of recoupment improvements and most of all the frozen mechanical increase which was real money for all.

Also big thanks to SoundCloud for sticking to their beliefs and ignoring the critics and naysayers and, of course, the lobbyists.

It must be said that this development gives the lie to Spotify’s position that adopting user centric requires renegotiating every license in the known universe before the topic can be broached. Fortunately for the artists concerned, SoundCloud was willing–even lacking Spotify’s extra $300 million to satisfy Daniel Ek’s edifice complex in Barcelona–to invest the resources in constructing a user-centric royalty payment system in anticipation of widespread adoption.