Universal Music Group’s Spinnup distribution platform has informed users that it is shifting towards a curated model for up-and-coming artists.
Spinnup is moving to become an invite-only platform that will now be curated by its team. The changes will take effect on July 19 and mean many acts will have to transfer to a new distributor.
“Spinnup is changing from an open DIY music distribution service to a curated artist discovery and distribution platform,” the platform informed users. “This means we will be reducing the number of artists on the platform as we move into this new chapter.
“Artists who are leaving Spinnup are being asked to take down their releases and transfer to a new distributor by July 12, 2022, after that date we will need to begin taking down any remaining live releases from departing artists.”
Spinnup was launched by Universal Music Sweden almost a decade ago and rolled out as a global platform in 2016. It enabled DIY acts to distribute to DSPs via the platform for a flat fee and retain all rights. Spinnup waived fees for artists during the pandemic.
It has also been a useful A&R resource for UMG, which revealed in 2020 that more than 80 Spinnup artists in Europe and the US had been upstreamed to frontline UMG labels.
Spinnup has put together a guide for artists affected by the changes. All users were notified of the plans via email this week.
“Spinnup is evolving into a fully curated invite-only artist discovery and music distribution platform,” the company explained. “This change means we can't accommodate all current Spinnup users.”
FOLLOW 
