In short, the three changes are:
1 - INTRODUCING A THRESHOLD OF MINIMUM STREAMS BEFORE A TRACK STARTS GENERATING ROYALTIES ON SPOTIFY
Today, every play on Spotify over 30 seconds long triggers a royalty payment. This won’t be the case by early next year…
2 - FINANCIALLY PENALIZING DISTRIBUTORS OF MUSIC – LABELS INCLUDED – WHEN FRAUDULENT ACTIVITY IS DETECTED ON MUSIC THAT THEY’VE UPLOADED TO SPOTIFY
Spotify believes it has the most sophisticated anti-fraud detection technology of any streaming platform – and it’s not afraid to use it…
3 - INTRODUCING A MINIMUM LENGTH OF TIME THAT NON-MUSIC ‘NOISE’ TRACKS MUST REACH IN ORDER TO GENERATE ROYALTIES
Today, as had been seen in a number of notable cases, makers of ‘non-music noise content’ (e.g. white noise, binaural beats, whale-song etc.) get paid the same as every other creator of music on Spotify.
One way said ‘non-music noise content’ uploaders have made the most of that fact? By splitting their ‘noise’ playlists into 31-second tracks.
This means, for example, that if someone plays a white noise playlist on repeat to help them sleep or to focus at work, hours of play-time are logged at Spotify, with every 31-second interval resulting in a royalty payout.
Source and more details: