Tag: spotify for artists

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Spotify Expands Artist Wrapped Offerings

Spotify Royalty Rate 2020

Spotify’s year-end festivities continue to astound and amaze with exciting new data insights now available to artists worldwide.

It’s that time of year again. While you are wondering what you’re going to buy the people in your life for the holidays and how you will afford it, Spotify users are busy devouring their annual ‘Wrapped’ content. The long-running feature presents data about user behavior over the past twelve months through a series of colorful and easily sharable infographics. Users can learn their top artists, songs, and what genres they play most often. They also learn what song they played the most, as well as how many times it was played.

But subscribers are not the only ones who benefit from Wrapped. This week, Spotify for Artists launched its annual 2021 Artist Wrapped microsite, presenting artists with a custom experience and share card showcasing their success on Spotify over the past year. 


Artists can log in or sign up for Spotify for Artists to view their share card and microsite experience, now available in 31 languages. Sample highlights you might remember from years past include… 

  • Total hours streamed
  • Increases in followers, total listeners, streams, or playlist adds
  • Total number of top listeners
  • Total number of fans sharing the artist’s profile, albums, and songs
  • Info showing the journey of an artist’s top track: Number of streams, how it traveled around the world, the day when it had the most listeners at the same time, playlist adds, and more 

As well as some new bells and whistles, like:

  • Audio Aura, a visualization of an artist’s songs based on the moods, genre, and sounds associated with their music
  • Throwback Track that showcases an artist’s top catalogue track that is still going strong
  • All of the artist’s listed collaborators 

Since its inception in 2017, Artist Wrapped has become a moment that artists and fans alike look forward to all year and it has seen tremendous growth since its launch:

  • The number of monthly active Spotify for Artists users during the Artist Wrapped time period increased by 670% (more than 7x) between 2017 and 2020.
  • Traffic to Spotify for Artists on the day of Artist Wrapped launch increased 933% (more than 10x) between 2017 and 2020.
  • Visits to the Artist Wrapped microsite increased 1381% (more than 14x) between 2017 and 2020.
  • Shares to social media from the Artist Wrapped microsite have increased by 285% since 2018.

Spotify also has Wrapped Share Cards available for podcasters who share their shows through the popular platform. A quick glance at the data available to us for High Notes, our recovery podcast, found massive growth over the last 12 months. Thank you.

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Spotify Reveals Partnership Program for Independent Artists

As its competitors try to steal the streaming crown, Spotify is taking steps to engage and support its massive community of independent artists.

Today, Spotify surprised its talent community by revealing a brand new partnership program for independent artists! Centered around the Fresh Finds playlist, the program focuses on helping developing artists learn, collaborate, and grow, giving them the tools for long-term, sustained career success.

The Fresh Finds playlist is often the very first level of Spotify playlisting for independent artists, serving as a launchpad for many artists who have gone on to wide mainstream success — Clairo, Omar Apollo, Curtis Waters, 100 gecs, Amine, and countless more. 

Since its debut in 2016, Fresh Finds has playlisted over 25,000 artists, with their average monthly listeners increasing by 108% in the 28-days following the add, compared to the previous 28-days. For artists whose first Spotify editorial playlist is Fresh Finds, over 44% go on to be added to another editorial playlist on Spotify.


The four artists that join the initial ‘class’ of the Fresh Finds program are Wallice, Unusual Demont, Julia Wolf and EKKSTACY.  These up-and-comers will be provided with a substantial suite of opportunities including…

  • Education & Access to Resources: Each artist will have access to an array of tools and opportunities to accelerate their careers, including personalized Masterclasses and mentorship, credits to use on Spotify for Artists resources (Marquee and SoundBetter’s Canvas designer category), and more. 
  • Creative Collaboration: The artists will be given the opportunity to each create an original song that will be released in June under the Spotify Singles banner.  Spotify’s Songwriter & Publishing Noteable team has paired the four artists with producers who understand each of their unique visions:
  • Marketing Support: The four artists will be featured in a major marketing campaign on-and-off platform, as well as taking part in a social media documentary series, Spotify Clips, and more.

“Independent artists are at the forefront of what’s next in music,” says Rachel Ring, Music Marketing Manager at Spotify. “It’s vital that we continue to create space and opportunities for this wide-ranging group of artists, meet them where they are, provide tools for them to have agency over their careers, and give them a voice in our marketing campaigns.” 

Over the span of six to eight weeks, artists in the program have access to one-on-one mentorship with members of Spotify and a personalized Masterclass to learn how to best use Spotify for Artists tools (like Canvas and Marquee). There will also be collaboration opportunities with songwriters and producers set up in partnership with Noteable, Spotify’s Songwriter and Publishing Relations team. At the end of the program, each of the four groups of artists and producers/songwriters will release an original Spotify Singles track. The collaboration process will be documented through a social content series so fans can follow along as the tracks are created and see the songs come to life.

“It was important for us to build an ecosystem around the artists we’re working with to ensure they have the tools, resources, and support they need to succeed in the short and long term,” continues Rachel. “At the end of this program we want our Fresh Finds artists to leave with a fluency in Spotify’s tools, a connection with other creators, growth across a wide range of new fans, and deeper engagement within their existing fan base.”

As part of the launch, Spotify will also be launching 13 new regional Fresh Finds playlists in Brazil, Spain, Australia/ NZ, UK/IE, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore/ Malaysia, Vietnam, India, Italy, Germany/Switzerland/Austria, South Korea and Turkey, to further our mission of helping developing artists find a global fanbase. 

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Could Spotify and Clubhouse be a Perfect Match? [VIDEO]

Combining two of the biggest audio-focused apps on the planet seems like a no-brainer, but will it actually happen?

The competition for listener attention and money in the crowded audio space is fierce. With virtually all streaming platforms offering the same songs, the only thing that can separate each brand is in the features they offer. Podcasts alone are not enough. High-fidelity recordings are not enough. The companies that rise above in 2021 and beyond need to be thinking outside the box, and it looks like Spotify may be doing just that with its latest activity. 

Recently, Spotify Daniel Ek participated in a Clubhouse event with Mark Zuckerberg that seemed to reveal his interest in audio-driven social technology. He then confirmed this belief in an interview with The Verge where he stated:

“I think that there’s a number of different elements of what social audio or Clubhouse even is. So I think on the one end, you’re seeing the interaction between two or more people talking, and obviously, if you think about podcasts today, that’s typically the format that’s working pretty well there, too. So I’m not surprised that that’s working.

I’m also not surprised that social features, users to users interacting with each other, are working. So it is an interesting space, and it’s definitely something that we’re keeping an eye on. Long-term, though, I think the broader shift that has been true with the internet has been most of the hours of consumption, we believe, will be moving from linear to on-demand. Meaning consumers should be able to consume whatever content that they want on their terms and not necessarily be beholden to someone else’s schedule. So I think it’s a really interesting format from a creation perspective, but I suspect that from the consumption perspective, most of the time consumed will still be on-demand which is what Spotify is known for today.“

The interest Ek — and by extension, Spotify — has in Clubhouse doesn’t stop there. In the last week, the streaming service has asked users with ad-supported streaming subscriptions to offer their thoughts on Clubhouse. The survey ends with a notice that the company will likely have more questions about Clubhouse soon.

But what does this mean? Two ideas that come to mind:

  • Spotify is considering acquiring Clubhouse.
  • Spotify is preparing to launch a native version of Clubhouse.

In the latest Music Biz update, host James Shotwell explains the latest rumors and argues that combining these two wildly popular apps could mark the dawn of a new age in music consumption and conversation. Check it out:

Spotify — or any streaming service — offering a native version of Clubhouse could be a pivotal moment in digital music evolution. For the first time, artists would host interactive fan events in the same place where their music is available for consumption. Rather than pointing fans from IG live, Zoom, or Twitch to yet another platform, everything an artist needs to engage with fans would be in one place.

Only time will tell what happens between these apps, but given Ek’s interest it seems likely something will develop in the months and years ahead. Stay tuned.

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Spotify Reveals Creative Marketplace for Canvas Looping Artwork

Spotify is doubling-down on its latest listener engagement tool with a marketplace to connect artists and creatives from around the world.

One of the big questions facing Spotify and other music streaming platforms is how to raise engagement. With most platforms having the same catalog as every other streaming service, companies like Spotify are searching for creative ways to attract and keep new users. They also want to give artists something other services don’t offer to encourage musicians to prioritize sharing links to their platform.

Enter Canvas. The Spotify-exclusive feature allows musicians to add 3-8 second looping video clips to their song streams. These clips play on mobile devices alongside music streams, and Spotify’s data points show they play a big role in raising overall engagement. When songs have a Canvas, listeners are…

  • 145% more likely to share the track
  • 5% more likely to keep streaming
  • 20% more likely to add the song to their personal playlists
  • 9% more likely to visit an artists’ profile page

But there is a problem. While most artists have access to Canvas, not everyone has the talent to make interesting clips. Spotify hopes to solve this with the introduction of a new marketplace that connects musicians with designers, which is rolling out today (November 19).

A post on the company blog reads:

SoundBetter is the world’s premier music production marketplace. It’s where singers, producers, songwriters, session musicians, and mixing and mastering engineers go to buy and sell the collaborative services that make music come to life.

Now, as Spotify for Artists expands access to Canvas – enabling even more artists to add mesmerizing looping visuals to their tracks – we’re also expanding SoundBetter’s offering to include a Canvas designer category. So, instead of scouring the internet for a graphic designer to work with, now you can go to SoundBetter to find the right designer for your Canvas creation needs.

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News

New Spotify Tool Pays Artists Less For More Promotion [VIDEO]

Boasting the promise of greater algorithmic consideration, the latest Spotify tool appears to be a modern ‘Pay 2 Play’ scheme.

On Monday, November 2, Spotify announced a new tool for artists that promises preferential algorithmic treatment for songs dubbed ‘priority.’ That is all good and well, as most artists would love more people to hear their music platform. However, the offer comes with a MAJOR catch.

“In this new experiment, artists and labels can identify music that’s a priority for them, and our system will add that signal to the algorithm that determines personalized listening sessions,” the statement reads. “This allows our algorithms to account for what’s important to the artist.”

Every song marked as priority will have a lower royalty rate. Artists will make less money per stream for songs that participate in Spotify’s new program. That’s a significant problem when you consider that the company typically only pays $0.004 per stream (on average).

To quote the company:

“Labels or rights holders agree to be paid a promotional recording royalty rate for streams in personalized listening sessions where we provided this service.”

The company also adds that the new program “won’t guarantee placement to labels or artists.”

In this Music Biz update, host James Shotwell breaks down Spotify’s latest offer. He weighs the pros and cons of participation in the ‘priority track’ promotion and what this development tells us about the company’s future. Check it out:

Learn more by subscribing to our YouTube Channel.

Just last week, over 4,000 independent artists in the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers presented a new campaign demanding that Spotify pay at least one cent per stream, among other requests for a more equitable streaming environment. “Music workers create all of the enormous wealth Spotify accumulates for its CEO, its investors, and the major labels,” the Union wrote in an open letter. “But we artists continue to be underpaid, misled, and otherwise exploited by the company.”

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Spotify’s New Tool Revolutionizes Music Podcasts (And It’s Free)

Spotify’s efforts to become the premier platform to listen, discover, and create podcasts just took a giant leap forward.

Spotify just reinvented music podcasts. Starting last week, users worldwide can create podcasts using Anchor that includes music from the Spotify library. The music is available to creators without licensing fees, but artists will make money from the use. It’s a first of its kind development that stands to create a boom of new content for the popular streaming platform.

Anchor, which Spotify acquired in February 2019, is a podcast creation and distribution platform that is free to use. With a few clicks, anyone can upload and share their recordings with the world. The new feature, available in numerous countries, allows creators to add full songs from anyone with music on Spotify without fear of copyright claims or expensive licensing costs.

But there is a catch. There’s always a catch.

Shows featuring music from the Spotify library will only be available to Spotify users. That may frustrate some creators, but it’s a genius decision for Spotify corporate. The company is encouraging boundless creativity while still keeping the final product of that creativity within its ecosystem. As a result, more creators will move shows or make new ones exclusive to Spotify, and Spotify will have a constant stream of new content for its massive community of users to consume. All this, plus the fact musicians will make money any time people stream podcasts with their music, makes this development a winning combination for everyone!

In this Music Biz 101 update, host James Shotwell breaks down the newest Spotify development and the many ways it can potentially help artists everywhere get ahead while earning money. Check it out:

For more music industry news and advice, subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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Spotify Launches Tool for Artists and Creator To Make Promo Cards

Spotify promo cards make it easy for creators everywhere to make eye-catching sharable content that brings more listeners to their content.

Starting today, creators — both musical artists and podcasters — can easily generate Spotify promo cards to share with their fans on social media. Available through Spotify for Artists and Spotify for Podcasters microsites, creators can customize and share graphics featuring their artist profile, track, album, podcast, or episode. Additionally, the sites will allow creators to download special promo cards to share when they’ve been added to any of 33 of Spotify’s most popular music & podcast playlists. 

The microsite for artists is HERE and the one for podcasters is HERE. The feature is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and German at launch. More language options are expected in the months to come.

A post on the Spotify For Artists blog outlines how the new tool works:

Introducing Promo Cards, easily customizable graphics that you can create to share with your fans to promote yourself, your songs, your album, or when you’re featured on some of our most popular playlists*. All you have to do is go to artists.spotify.com/promocards to get started. There’s no log-in required and the site is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and German. Once you’re there, you can create your custom Promo Cards in three simple steps:

SELECT: Search for the content you want to promote. You can share your artist profile, a track, or an album. If one of your songs has been playlisted, you’ll see the option to share a customized Promo Card in the search results for the track.

CUSTOMIZE: How do you want fans to see the image? Will it be square, horizontal, or portrait? You can choose the aspect ratio and background color from a palette of complementary options.

SHARE: Download your new creation and upload it wherever you like with the link to your content the site generates. You can also choose one of the direct share options on the site to post it to social media.

Now, without having to spend time resizing and cropping you’ve created something fans can share to help spread the word about you and your music. And if you’re a podcaster (or if you guest on a podcast you want to help promote), we have Spotify for Podcasters Promo Cards available too.


*Playlists eligible for Promo Cards: African Heat, Are & Be, Esquenta Sertanejo, Exitos Espana, Fresh Finds, Future Hits Latin, Hot Country, Hot Hits Australia, Hot Hits Canada, Hot Hits UK, Indigo, Just Good Music, Lorem, Mansion Reggaeton, Modus Mio, mint, Most Necessary, New Boots, New Music Friday, RADAR, Pegao, POLLEN, Pop Rising, Rap Caviar, Rock This, Roots Rising, The New Alt, The Newness, Today’s Top Hits, Top Hits Deutschland, Top Hits Portugal, Viva Latino

Podcasters will follow similar steps for content creation.

All you have to do is go to podcasters.spotify.com/promocards to get started. There’s no log-in required and the site is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and German. Once you’re there, you can create your custom Promo Cards in three simple steps:

SELECT: Search for the content you want to promote. You can share your show’s profile or an episode. If one of your episodes has been playlisted, you’ll see the option to share a customized Promo Card in the search results for the show or episode.

CUSTOMIZE: How do you want listeners to see the image? Will it be square, horizontal, or portrait? You can choose the aspect ratio and background color from a palette of complementary options.

SHARE: Download your new creation and upload it wherever you like with the link to your content the site generates. You can also choose one of the direct share options on the site to post it to social media.

Now, without having to spend time resizing and cropping, you’ve created something listeners can share to help spread the word about your podcast. And if you’re an artist (or if you guest on a podcast you want to help promote), we have Spotify for Artists Promo Cards available too.

*Playlists eligible for Promo Cards: Best Podcasts of the Week, Brain Snacks, and Crime Scene

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Spotify Launches Real-Time Lyrics Feature in 26 Countries

The streaming giant is taking steps to make users better at karaoke with a new feature that will help fans everywhere learn their favorite songs.

Last November, Spotify began testing a new tool that would offer listeners access to song lyrics in real-time. The company has remained tight-lipped about the effort, but this week, the feature is being made available in 26 countries. It marks the first time lyrics have been offered in 22 of the 26 markets, as only Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Mexico had some form of lyrics support in the past via other providers.

The new feature is possible thanks to a partnership between Spotify and Musixmatch, which was also involved in testing. The terms of the deal between the two companies are not public, but it’s probably similar to the ongoing collaboration between Apple Music and Genius.

Spotify listeners can access the new feature by tapping “lyrics” at the bottom of the “now playing” screen. The lyrics will then appear in the language in which the song is sung—no word about translation.

The following markets can now access the new lyrics feature: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, El Salvador, Uruguay, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong.

North America and Europe will need to wait a bit longer for the new feature, but we imagine the tool will be available in the near future.

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3 Ways To Drastically Improve Spotify For Artists

Spotify’s importance in the music ecosystem is great, but there are several ways the streaming giant can improve their artist portal to benefit all musicians.

Analysts can and will debate the streaming royalty rates that Spotify offers musicians for as long as the service exists. We’ve written about it extensively ourselves, and we will continue to do so, but Spotify’s relationship with musicians is about more than money. The company possesses a massive amount of data, all of which is the direct result of artists sharing music on its platform. Still, only a tiny amount is made available to talent. Spotify For Artists is one of the best analytics services in the industry, and yet, there is far more that can (and should) be available to musicians.

The Spotify For Artists platform currently offers musicians the ability to submit music for playlist consideration, review play counts for their entire catalog, and learn the location of their listeners. Artists can also update their account by adding and removing photos, as well as updating their biography and concert listings. These tools are impressive, and they go a long way toward helping musicians understand and build their audience. Still, there are data points that Spotify could supply that needs to the company needs to consider for future updates.

Revenue Insights

The biggest thing lacking from Spotify For Artists today is information related to the money artists earn from the platform. Artists cannot see how much money their music has earned to date, nor can they access estimated revenue for the current day, week, or month. Aside from play counts, musicians don’t even know how much money they’ve earned from specific songs.

Spotify’s payment system is complicated. There is no flat-rate for streams. The amount a song earns per stream is a complex calculation that includes the total streams on the platform. That may contribute to the company’s decision to withhold earnings information, but it doesn’t change the fact that artists deserve to know how and why behind their payments.

Advanced Audience Insights

Musicians can currently view the cities where they are most popular, as well as the total number of fans in that area. They can also see similar insights about the audience for each song in their catalog. That’s useful, to an extent, but stops short of providing key information such as:

  • What songs are most popular in each location.
  • Average listening of those in a specific location.
  • Change in listeners in a specific area from month to month.
  • Ages and Gender information for each region.
  • What percentage of the audience from an area follows the artists versus passive listeners.
  • The lifespan of the average listener.

Bring Back The Ability To Message Followers

In the earliest versions of Spotify, artists could message their followers. The tool disappeared to help streamline the platform and prevent users from being overwhelmed by promotional messaging from their favorite artists. It’s easy to understand how that decision came to pass, but it’s time to resurrect messaging to empower artists further. Spotify is now the most popular music streaming platform in the world, and its continuing reign over the competition depends on artists promoting their service. To do that, Spotify needs to give artists something other services have not, and a direct line to their a musician’s most active fans is the perfect solution.

Think about it. Spotify knows every musician’s most active listeners. They know their name, location, favorite songs, time spent listening, and more. Only a small fraction of that data is currently available to artists, in part because Spotify doesn’t want engagement happening outside its platform. Enabling a messaging platform provides a means of communication between artists and fans that occurs exclusively on Spotify and raises engagement across the board. Everyone wins.

There are more ways Spotify can improve, but these three changes would make a substantial impact on how artists use the platform and engage with their audience. By creating these updates, Spotify would be playing a role in determining future tour routings, recording efforts, release plans, and merch sales. Spotify could, in essence, become a complete music ecosystem rather than one small part of a much larger industry machine.

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