Labels Will Be Able To Pay Spotify To Promote Their Artists
Spotify announced a big change in the past week that will allow record labels to pay to promote their artists on the streaming service.
The new feature was teased back in July according to Music Business Worldwide, but now is beginning to test it.
The feature will allow labels to pay to promote their artists on Spotify in a few ways. The new “Paid for You” feature is based on your music taste according to Spotify.
“We personalize these new album recommendations based on your listening taste, combined with human curation,” explains Spotify with a new blog post. “With an upcoming test we’re running in the US, we’re giving artists and their teams the ability to directly tap into this process and connect with the fans that care most about their music.”
The recommendations will appear for both free and Premium users, so premium users will still be served these. However, premium users will be able to turn them off if they like.
“In this test, we will let artist teams pay to sponsor these recommendations, giving them the power to tell their listeners on Spotify—across both our Free and Premium tiers—about their latest release,” explains Spotify. “You’ll now hear from a wider range of artists, which means you’re less likely to miss out on new releases from your favorites.”
This is only a test for now in the US. These types of pop ups already appear at the top of your app, but now Spotify is allowing labels to pay to get placement in them. The “Brand New Music For You” will appear as a visual pop up ad. With the curation element of these pop ups, it may not change too much what users are seeing if labels can afford the promo. This will also help Spotify make some more money as it works towards consistent profitability.
