Have Deezer and Ministry of Sound kissed and made up? Not quite

You may remember Ministry Of Sound CEO Lohan Presencer tore strips off Deezer (and other ‘freemium’ services) on stage at Mobile World Congress back in March.

For those who require their memory to be jogged, the video is below, and here’s two of Presencer’s standout quotes:

  • “You’re very nice guys and I’m sure you work very hard… [but] you espouse the rhetoric of supporting the music industry when the reality is that you work for companies who are funded by investors, who want to see an exit on that investment.
  • “So your objective is to grow your user base to tell a story that is such so that you can IPO or you can sell… You are not the ones investing in developing talent. You are not the ones signing artists. Our artists, our investment, our creative community is contracting daily as a result of the free services that are out there giving music away with the objective of an exit at the end of it.”

Now Deezer and the label have done a deal for an official MoS page to appear on the platform – something Deezer, understandably, is rather pleased with.

Available globally from today, to free and premium+ users, Deezer calls the new section ‘a one-stop shop for fans of Ministry’.

Take a look through here. The page features:

  • MOS Deezer playlists,
  • Featured MOS artists
  • tours and events
  • MOS radio
  • Video content, including ‘Live from The Club’

Prescencer, though, is very clear that he doesn’t consider this very much of an olive branch.

He told MBW: “It’s a label page which profiles our repertoire and has a small selection of playlists.

“To portray it as anything more than that is rather overstating the case.”

Anyone else feel a bit chilly?

Music Business Worldwide

Related Posts