Earlier this March, Spotify launched a new era of Spotify for Artists during their Stream On event. Introducing new features for Artists to build hype around a release, share their music around the world, and promote their tracks have given artists new opportunities to develop their fanbase and build their business. Here are some key highlights from the event we think artists should be aware of: 

Clips are Spotify's new vertical videos that last less than 30 seconds. Clips enable users to showcase their creativity, invite their followers in their artistic world, and keep their music at the forefront of content. The goal of clips was to give artists a platform that inspires fandoms and long-term success. Uploading clips can help artists hype up an upcoming release, promote an album or single, and lead their fans towards a deeper connection with their music. Clips are uploaded directly to Spotify for Artists.

Join the Beta Waitlist.  

Spotify’s Countdown pages offer fans a fresh platform to pre-save upcoming albums, preview the track list, pre-order new merch, watch video Clips, and see the timer count down to the release moment – all in one place. Countdown Pages have been tested by Taylor Swift, Karol G, Florence and the Machine, Quevedo, Paramore, and other artists, and the outcomes have been remarkable: Typically, over 80% of pre-savers have streamed the new release in the first week. Given these outcomes, we will enable more artists to create Countdown Pages within Spotify for Artists in the forthcoming months.

Marquee is a promotional feature that presents artist’s new releases to Spotify Free and Premium listeners who have demonstrated an interest in your music and are likely to listen to it further. It occupies the entire screen and is sponsored. Clicking on a Marquee will direct the listener to an artist’s new release exclusively. This allows them to concentrate entirely on the artist’s music and explore more of his or her work. Using Marquee campaigns leads to an increase in playlist adds, listeners, and click-to-listen rate.

Spotify is now adding artist’s merch to new surfaces like the Now Playing view, so fans can buy merch while they are listening to their favorite songs. With Spotify’s shopify integration, artists can connect their merch stores to Spotify for Artists for as little as $5 dollars a month. Artists can select 3 published items to feature on his or her artist page and tag published items with their associated release.