US music publishers, as represented by the National Music Publishing Association, have reached an agreement with music streaming platform Spotify over the contentious issue of “unmatched works”.

In what is described as "a landmark agreement”, Spotify has agreed to compensate publishers and writers for the use of works whose ownership information was previously unknown. This concerns mostly mechanical rights. The agreement also sets a framework for Spotify to identify the rightful recipients of these works. The deal only covers compositions used on Spotify in the ...