In today’s music landscape, it’s more important than ever for artists to build real connections with their listeners. Artists want to represent themselves authentically, deepen their relationships with fans, and trust that the system carrying their work is transparent and fair.
Who’s actually behind a release? How do artists stay in control of what’s released on their profile? How does Spotify protect the royalty pool for real artists pursuing legitimate careers in music?
These questions affect how artists build their careers and how fans discover music. Spotify has been focused on three areas: improving transparency for listeners, giving artists more control over their music and identities, and protecting the integrity of the platform.
Here’s a look at some of our most recent updates and what they mean for artists.
Verified by Spotify
Verified by Spotify is a new badge that signals to listeners that an artist profile has been reviewed and meets Spotify’s criteria for authenticity: sustained listener activity and engagement over time, good standing with platform policies, and an identifiable artist presence both on and off-platform.
Those standards are applied with human review, and at launch, more than 99% of artists listeners actively search for were verified. The majority of these artists are independent, spanning genres, career stages, and geographies. A new Artist Details section is also rolling out across all profiles — verified or not — surfacing career milestones, release activity, and touring updates to give listeners more context about who they’re hearing.
SongDNA
Behind every great song is a deeper thread of people, stories, and influences that shaped each note. SongDNA brings that context to the surface in the Now Playing view for Spotify Premium users by revealing the writers, producers, and collaborators behind a track, the samples and interpolations that shaped its sound, and the covers it inspired.
For the wider creator community (including songwriters, producers, composers, and engineers), it’s a new way for listeners to find and engage with their work, putting collaborations and influences front and center. Eligible artist and label teams can review and manage their SongDNA information directly in Spotify for Artists, ensuring they have a direct hand in how their creative story is told on Spotify.
Artist Profile Protection
Releases landing on the wrong artist profile has been a persistent problem in streaming, whether due to a metadata error, a common name, or a deliberate bad actor. When that happens, it affects an artist’s catalog, their stats, and how listeners find their music. For the first time on any music streaming service, Artist Profile Protection (currently in beta in select markets) gives artists the ability to review and approve releases before they go live on their Spotify artist profile.
Combined with existing content mismatch reporting, Artist Profile Protection provides both a proactive and reactive layer of protection so artists and their teams can act both before and after a release connects to their profile.
These investments to build a healthier music ecosystem are only the foundation. As the landscape continues to shift, so will our efforts to keep it working fairly for artists and the industry around them. Follow along for what’s to come at Spotify for Artists.
