There's a new music streaming service in town – and it promises to pay artists a lot more

(Image credit: Presto Music)

While the convenience of online streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal are hugely attractive to everyday listeners, they're not without their problems. The lack of hi-res streaming on Spotify aside, many mainstream services have come under fire for how little they tend to pay their artists. Not such a problem for Taylor Swift, but a bigger issue for artists not pulling in millions of streams per year.

That's where Presto Music comes in. Launched in 2023, the niche platform focuses predominantly on classical and jazz music, with around 200,000 albums currently listed alongside over 70,000 digital booklets. With many tracks available to stream in 24-bit/192kHz hi-res audio, Presto Music is accessible via the Presto Music app (desktop and mobile), a web player and through compatible music streamers using the BluOS platform (such as Bluesound Node or Cyrus 40 ST). The service also offers daily articles from music experts to keep you clued up on the tunes you're listening to, as well as the chance to purchase albums in both digital and physical formats.

Much of the appeal of Presto Music comes from its remuneration model. Via its 'Far Play' initiative, Presto promises to pay up to 10 times more per album than its lowest-paying competitors, paying artists per second of music streamed rather than using the ‘per play’ model of most rival platforms. That averages out at a lot more cash for artists, especially in the case of classical and jazz recordings where each individual track can be a lot longer than more mainstream pop, rock or hip-hop tunes.

Presto Music on a laptop — (Image credit: Presto Music)

A listen to Théotime Langlois de Swarte's rendition of Vivaldi's Concerti Per Una Vita, for example, highlights the disparity between pay per second and pay per play. One listen to the album on Spotify, for instance, generates £0.135 for the artist, whereas the same record played through Presto Music will recoup £1.058.

Having launched its Fair Play initiative, Presto Music also wants to ensure that higher revenues actually make it to 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.“

Subscriptions to a standard Presto Music streaming plan start at £11 / $11 a month, offering hi-res sound, 200,000 albums and offline listening. A 'Streaming Plus' plan, meanwhile, costs £13.99 / $13.99 per month and includes 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.

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Harry McKerrell is a senior staff writer at What Hi-Fi?. During his time at the publication, he has written countless news stories alongside features, advice and reviews of products ranging from floorstanding speakers and music streamers to over-ear headphones, wireless earbuds and portable DACs. He has covered launches from hi-fi and consumer tech brands, and major industry events including IFA, High End Munich and, of course, the Bristol Hi-Fi Show. When not at work he can be found playing hockey, practising the piano or trying to pet strangers' dogs.

8 Comments Comment from the forums

djh1697

No support by Roon, yet?
Reply
manicm

djh1697 said:
No support by Roon, yet?

I would think if your playback device is Roon Ready like most NAD BluOS devices then its compatible by default.
Reply
Hifiman

‘One listen to the album on Spotify, for instance, generates £0.135 for the artist, whereas the same record played through Presto Music will recoup £1.058.’

Neither streaming service will remain in business for long if these are truly the rates paid to artists!
Reply
DougM

Hifiman said:
‘One listen to the album on Spotify, for instance, generates £0.135 for the artist, whereas the same record played through Presto Music will recoup £1.058.’

Neither streaming service will remain in business for long if these are truly the rates paid to artists!
I assume they must have been off by a factor of 100. You obviously can't pay £15 for a month of music, then have one hour of listening cost the company £1. You'd have spent your monthly in 2 days.

Edit: checked their website, where they really do seem to be claiming to pay about 1/2£/hr for music they are getting paid 15£ per month. They would start losing money at 30 hrs/month, which seems crazily low to me. Do their listeners really stream so little?
Reply
jjbomber

Hifiman said:
‘One listen to the album on Spotify, for instance, generates £0.135 for the artist, whereas the same record played through Presto Music will recoup £1.058.’
I don't think Vivaldi is too bothered about it!
Reply
chrisoreilly

DougM said:
I assume they must have been off by a factor of 100. You obviously can't pay £15 for a month of music, then have one hour of listening cost the company £1. You'd have spent your monthly in 2 days.

Edit: checked their website, where they really do seem to be claiming to pay about 1/2£/hr for music they are getting paid 15£ per month. They would start losing money at 30 hrs/month, which seems crazily low to me. Do their listeners really stream so little?
Hi Doug,
Like almost all music streaming services we pay around 70% of our revenue through the rightsholders. That means the more music is listened to, the less per play gets paid back, but the service always keeps around 30%. On our current usage for us that's working out at around 40p per hour going back to labels (the Vivaldi album cited here is 2hr 27 mins - hence over £1 for one album play)
Most of our customers also own CD, Download or Vinyl collections so not all their listening is happening through streaming. Some also subscribe to other services as well but find for classical our experience is so much better it is worth an extra subscription for that. Also, classical consumers are less likely to have playlists playing from dawn til dusk. Classical music really suffers on major platforms as usage is diluted by listeners of other genres who typically consume a lot more music. Also, some classical works have very long tracks, which only count as a play on major services.
Reply
Hifiman

chrisoreilly said:
Hi Doug,
Like almost all music streaming services we pay around 70% of our revenue through the rightsholders. That means the more music is listened to, the less per play gets paid back, but the service always keeps around 30%. On our current usage for us that's working out at around 40p per hour going back to labels (the Vivaldi album cited here is 2hr 27 mins - hence over £1 for one album play)
Most of our customers also own CD, Download or Vinyl collections so not all their listening is happening through streaming. Some also subscribe to other services as well but find for classical our experience is so much better it is worth an extra subscription for that. Also, classical consumers are less likely to have playlists playing from dawn til dusk. Classical music really suffers on major platforms as usage is diluted by listeners of other genres who typically consume a lot more music. Also, some classical works have very long tracks, which only count as a play on major services.
I hope your business model works out for everyone involved.
Reply
Richard Brand

What Hi-Fi? said:
Presto Music is a new music streaming service focusing on jazz and classical records which pays artists by the second rather than per stream.

There's a new music streaming service in town – and it promises to pay artists a lot more : Read more
I'd like to think you discovered Presto after I pointed out its omission from your review of streaming services! Presto's biggest advantage for classical music lovers is that it understands classical music, which rarely comprises playlists of songs, or even as your article now says, tunes.
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