Presto Music launches streaming service
Florence Lockheart
Tuesday, February 21, 2023
The new streaming service uses a pay-per-second model which is fairer for classical composers and artists than the pay-per-track model used by other platforms
Music e-commerce platform Presto Music, has announced the launch of its online streaming service. Available from today, the new service will offer users access to over 200,000 classical and jazz albums.
Where other streaming services pay their artists using a pay-by-track system, Presto’s service will instead use a pay-per-second model. This will ensure fairer remuneration for classical artists as classical pieces are on average much longer than pop and rock tracks, and so payment on the new platform will more accurately reflect the time and effort put in by classical artists.
Presto Music chief executive Chris O'Reilly said: ‘Recently there has been much discussion in the media about how poorly streaming services remunerate artists, and the regularly used track-play system certainly doesn’t favour the often much longer classical music tracks. Musicians are the lifeblood of our industry. They have spent tens of thousands of hours refining their craft to bring us life enriching experiences. We are proud that we are launching this model here in the UK which will pay artists and composers fairly.’
This new streaming service will be a development of Presto’s initial streaming capability. With subscriptions starting from £10.99 a month, the service will be available as an Android app, iOS app, and Web player. Tracks will be available to listen and download for offline listening in CD-quality sound. The service also includes a search engine built specially for searching for classical tracks.
Presto Music began life in 1986 as a small high-street shop in Leamington Spa, and has since grown into the UK’s leading e-commerce site for classical and jazz recordings. Talking about the company’s goals for the new service, O'Reilly said: ‘Whilst we’re still selling as many CDs as ever, and 2022 was our best year ever for downloads, we hope that with the launch of our new streaming service we can tap into new audiences and secure the future of our business and also the livelihoods of the next generation of composers and artists.’
