New Music Streaming Service Promises Higher Pay for Artists

While the convenience of online streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal is hugely attractive to everyday listeners, they're not without their problems. Beyond the lack of hi-res streaming on Spotify, many mainstream services have been criticized for how little they tend to pay their artists. Not so much a problem for Taylor Swift, however a lot more of an issue for artists not pulling in millions of streams per year.

Enter Presto Music. Launched in 2023, this niche platform is dedicated to classical and jazz music, offering around 200,000 albums and over 70,000 digital booklets. Many tracks are available for streaming in 24-bit/192kHz hi-res audio. Presto Music can be accessed via its desktop and mobile app, a web player, or through compatible music streamers using the BluOS platform (such as Bluesound Node or Cyrus 40 ST). The service also features daily expert articles to enhance your listening experience and offers both digital and physical album purchases.

Much of the attraction of Presto Music comes through its model of payment. Through its 'Far Play' policy, Presto vows to pay as much as 10 times more per album than its lowest paying rivals, paying artists per second of music streamed rather than using the 'per play' model of most rival platforms. That puts a good deal more money in the pockets of artists, especially for classical and jazz recordings where each individual track can be a good deal longer than more mainstream pop, rock or hip-hop.

For instance, listening to Théotime Langlois de Swarte's interpretation of Vivaldi's Concerti Per Una Vita reveals the difference between pay per second and pay per play. Listening to the album on Spotify, for example, generates £0.135 for the artist, whereas the same record played through Presto Music will recoup £1.058.

Presto Music has also launched its Fair Play initiative, and higher revenues should find their way into the pockets of the artists themselves. Presto is investigating the accuracy of information held by Collecting Societies – the organisations that allocate royalties to composers and performers – in a bid to ensure the money goes to the right place.

According to Chris O'Reilly, Presto Music's chief executive, “Our data makes it plain just how unfair the ‘pay per play’ model is when it comes to a big chunk of classical repertoire, especially orchestral music, which is also typically expensive to record. To ensure the future viability of our industry it needs to pay fairly. We’re doing that and hope others will start doing so as well."

Standard Presto Music streaming subscriptions begin at £11 / $11 a month and include hi-res sound, 200,000 albums, and the ability to listen offline. Meanwhile, the 'Streaming Plus' plan retails for £13.99 / $13.99 per month and comes with 10 per cent discounts and free delivery on all Presto purchases.

Music streaming dominates our listening habits (with 88.8% of music consumption in the UK done through streaming, according to BPI data for 2024), and any service that fairly pays the artists whose music we love listening to can only be a good thing for the industry as a whole.