Could there be a late twist in the drama that has seen Spotify announce plans to shut down its service in Uruguay? The country’s president Luis Lacalle Pou hopes so.
He said late last week that talks are underway with Spotify to persuade it to u-turn on its decision to quit Uruguay over a new law bringing in equitable remuneration for artists.
“You have to be balanced. We understand that it is a very important platform. In fact, this morning I received the notification that reached many,” he said in a press conference reported by news outlet Teledoce.
The president maintained that artists and songwriters need support, but said that “we are in talks: we are going to move forward, I hope. We are going to come to an agreement”.
A petition on Change·org calling on the government (not Spotify) to “guarantee the permanence of Spotify in our country” has been signed by more than 37,000 people so far, meanwhile.
Meanwhile, Spotify has continued to assert that it is the victim in this scenario. “Spotify Is Being Pushed Out of Uruguay,” was the title of a blog post published on Friday for example. It reiterated that Spotify pays nearly 70% of its revenues out in royalties.
Of the new monies for musicians in Uruguay, the streaming service said it wants the Uruguayan government to make it clear that “record labels and publishers to whom we pay that ~70% should bear the responsibility for these costs”.
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