Spotify just announced some big news for artists – and their bank accounts.
The streaming platform has long enabled artists to highlight a piece of music on their profile via the ‘Artist’s Pick’ headline.
Spotify Stations is another separate app that's available to download alongside the main Spotify app. Stations is intended to give listeners easy access to curated playlists and a more radio-like. Spotify listeners tune in throughout their day, across cities, communities, and countries around the world. #1 in brand intimacy. Our fans have all the feels for Spotify. We rank #1 in emotional connection² among mobile app users, and people say ads on Spotify make brands seem more relevant and trustworthy.³. 4B+ playlists and 1.9M+ podcast. This Spotify TV app for the Amazon Firestick is brilliant and easy to use with the remote control, when finding your library of music and playing them. Good to have it on a big screen and sound quality is first class. Lots of choice of artists and able to build a personal library.
Now, Spotify has launched a sister version of this feature, ‘Artist Fundraising Pick’, which allows acts to pin a specific destination on their profile where fan can pay them ‘tips’.
Artists wishing to use their Fundraising Pick to encourage their fans to pay money to good causes are welcome to do so – either via GoFundMe, or direct to a range of causes supported by Spotify’s COVID-19 Music Relief project.
However, artists wishing to use Fundraising Pick to encourage their fans to pay them money, can also do so – via a link to one of two endorsed e-wallet services, PayPal.me and Cash App.
The timing of the launch of ‘Artist Fundraising Pick’ is obviously apt, amid a global pandemic that has wiped away any hope of live touring income for artists, while also hurting physical music sales and licensing revenues.
Said Spotify in a blog post today: “Given the urgency and impact of the COVID-19 crisis, we’re working as quickly as we can to develop this new product and get it out to as many artists as possible. However, we’ve never built a fundraising feature like this before. We consider this a first version that will evolve as we learn how to make it as helpful as possible for the music community.”
Time will tell how committed Spotify is to the long-term idea of fans being able to ‘tip’ artists money directly on its platform, or whether these features will be retired after (fingers crossed, everyone!) the COVID-19 pandemic dissipates.
Online fan ‘tipping’ has become commonplace on platforms such as Twitch (via the platform’s ‘Cheering’ feature), and has also become a key tenet of Tencent Music Entertainment’s business in China.
“Given the urgency and impact of the COVID-19 crisis, we’re working as quickly as we can to develop this new product and get it out to as many artists as possible.”
Spotify
YouTube launched a ‘Fan funding’ virtual tip jar feature for creators in 2014, but later retired it. In 2017, YouTube essentially replaced this tip jar with ‘Super Chat’, which enables fans to pay to have their live chat messages highlighted; creators earn a share of this money.
One of Spotify’s new partners, Cash App, has pledged a $1m fund for artists in the US and UK on the service as part of today’s announcement, which has the double benefit of helping acts during a difficult time… while also monetarily incentivising them to use Cash App rather than PayPal.me.
How that fund works: Spotify for Artists users that submit their “$cashtag” username as their Artist Fundraising Pick — and secure at least one monetary contribution through Spotify — will receive an extra $100 in their account from Cash App, until a collective total of $1 million has been contributed.
According to Spotify, artists from all over the world and at various stages of their careers have helped launch the Artist Fundraising Pick.
Tyrese Pope is fundraising through Cash App.
He said: “I’ve been using Cash App to raise money for a while but now that listeners can contribute through Spotify, it’s going to make a big difference. With touring now impossible, it’s never been harder for artists to make ends meet, so the extra contributions from Cash App and listeners alike will really help when we need it most.”
Boy Scouts (aka Taylor Vick) is also fundraising through Cash App.
She commented: “Like so many others right now, I am out of work as our tours have been cancelled or postponed because of COVID-19. Any help is appreciated as we keep in our efforts to find new ways to get by.”
“I’ve been using Cash App to raise money for a while but now that listeners can contribute through Spotify, it’s going to make a big difference.”
Tyrese Pope
Benjamin Ingrosso is fundraising for Musikerforbundet.
“I want to be helpful in the ways I can during these difficult times,” said Ingrosso. “I’ve seen lots of my fellow musicians lose work due to the current situation. Most of us don’t know when we will be able to go back to work.
“Music is something that always helps us in rough times like these as well as being there with us to celebrate all the happy moments. I’m hoping that this fundraising for Musikerförbundet can help us get through this and get us back up on the stage, when all of this is over, to bring happiness to people with live music again.”
Marshmello is fundraising for MusiCares: “So many of us have been affected by the COVID-19 virus, and now more than ever we need to stand together and help each other.
“MusiCares is helping all working musicians, producers, songwriters, engineers and so many. Let’s all do our part to help those who need it most!”
Spotify said: “This is an incredibly difficult time for many Spotify users and people around the world — and there are many worthy causes to support at this time.
“With this feature, we simply hope to enable those who have the interest and means to support artists in this time of great need, and to create another opportunity for our COVID-19 Music Relief partners to find the financial support they need to continue working in music and lift our industry.”
Spotify for Artists admin users can select Get started on the banner at the top of their dashboard to submit their Fundraising Pick.Music Business Worldwide
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The MBW Review is where we aim our microscope towards some of the music biz’s biggest recent goings-on. This time, we consider the fact that the time is ripe for Spotify to make its livestreaming play. The MBW Review is supported by Instrumental.
You don’t need us to tell you how well Spotify’s podcast strategy is going.
That was clear back in May when the company’s stock price soared following the news of its $100m Joe Rogan podcast deal – and it’s even clearer today, with SPOT’s market cap having grown by over 50% since the Rogan news was announced.
Yet while investing in spoken-word audio content is Spotify’s current No.1 goal, the company must be careful not to miss new opportunities, especially in its ‘homeland’ of music.
One obvious opportunity that Spotify is yet to capitalize on is live video streaming, which has boomed in music during COVID quarantine.
At least, Spotify is yet to capitalize on it officially: today brought evidence – as spotted by renowned reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong – which suggests SPOT may indeed be working on adding virtual concert-related functionality to its platform.
Manchun Wong, a specialist in rooting out secret test pages that tech companies are trialling in their platforms, discovered an ‘Upcoming Virtual Events’ area in Spotify’s app, as well as a specific ‘Virtual Event’ mocked-up calendar entry for a BTS show.
These could simply be new calendar-connected additions to Spotify (in the same way the app’s Concerts area currently syncs with Songkick to alert fans to an artist’s upcoming real-life shows), or they could be something more.
Either way, with so much potential and activity in concert livestreaming happening right now, it would be shortsighted for Spotify not to focus more of its energies on a launch in the space in the weeks ahead.
Here’s why this is an obvious move…
1) A Lucrative business model is beginning to become clear
Livestreaming is big business.
When music venues large and small were forced to shut around the world back in March following due to COVID-19, artists had no choice but to start turning to livestreaming to perform for fans and as a result, the past few months have given us a number of case studies for just how lucrative the format can be.
Take American singer songwriter Melissa Etheridge for example, who instead of relying on the likes of Facebook Live or Instagram Live to generate revenue from livestreaming, set up her own subscription service called Etheridge TV – and is now making around $50,000 a month direct from fan subscriptions.
Big Hit-signed K-Pop superstars BTS, meanwhile, banked close to $20m in ticket sales in June for their pay-per-view ‘BANG BANG CON The Live’ event, which attracted 756,600 concurrent viewers from 107 regions.
Everything related to ‘BANG BANG CON The Live’ – from buying the ticket, to watching the concert and purchasing concert merchandise – was processed exclusively in Big Hit Entertainment’s own fan app, Weverse.
And last month, over 1 million people paid to attend the virtual edition of Belgian dance festival Tomorrowland Around the World, which featured performances from Katy Perry, Amelie Lens, David Guetta and Martin Garrix.
With tickets priced between €12.50 (approx $15) and €20 (approx $24), it appears likely that Tomorrowland Around the World comfortably generated over $10 million… all in one weekend.
If there was ever a time for Spotify to claim a slice of this action, it’s now.
2) If Spotify doesn’t do it, other big companies in music will…
The convergence between the audio streaming and live-video streaming worlds is already happening, and fast.
Just today (August 25) we learned that UK-based virtual reality company Melody VR has acquired Spotify rival Napster in a $70m deal.
Meanwhile, over in India, Reliance-owned JioSaavn has partnered with TikTok rival Triller, which will see the two services integrated over the next few months.
Triller is an interesting case here: the platform recently acquired live streaming firm Halogen Networks to power its pay-per-view and live streaming features. Halogen’s app offers both HD livestreaming tech, plus an out-of-the-box paywall function.
Linked to this acquisition, Triller has secured exclusive streaming rights to next month’s blockbuster Mike Tyson vs Roy Jones Jr. boxing bout, for which Triller reportedly paid “north of $50 million”.
The four-hour live Tyson vs. Jones Jr. event will be pay-per-view – at $49.99 for access – opening up a revenue stream for Triller that will surely be the envy of Spotify’s investors.
Triller CEO Mike Lu (pictured inset) recently told Rolling Stone that following the Tyson fight, the platform plans to become “a destination for high-premium content across sports and music — events that play right into our core demographic”.
Elsewhere, Live Nation is already producing events for its Live At Home platform for the likes of Lil Uzi Vert and Megan Thee Stallion, and the firm’s CEO Michael Rapino suggests his team is busy working on a heavyweight livestreaming platform for launch in 2021.
Meanwhile, Sony Music in Japan recently launched a livestreaming platform called Stagecrowd – “a paid live video distribution service that serves as a one-stop shop for ticket sales, merchandise sales, and stage construction”.
SPOT’s competitors are clearly making headway in this world already, and the landscape is hotting up.
How Big Is The Spotify App Pc
3) For Spotify to build extra-premium tiers and differentiate itself from competitors
So far, Spotify has followed a fairly safe, and industry-standard approach, to its pricing tiers.
At its core, SPOT offers a straight choice between Premium and ad-funded options, with slight money-saving variations on the former, like Family Plan and Premium Duo.
Spotify doesn’t even offer a more expensive HD tier like Amazon Music, Deezer or Tidal.
Another tier strategy for Spotify could be in the works around Audiobooks. Spotify was recently spotted hiring for an exec “to imagine new possibilities for what AudioBooks can be”.
But, as we learned from BTS label Big Hit Entertainment this week, taking a more sophisticated approach to the fan-artist value exchange can become a lucrative strategy for those companies well positioned to do so.
BTS and Big Hit’s Weverse app has proven that artists with die-hard fanbases are capable of generating serious revenue from virtual concerts and within their own tech ecosystems.
Melissa Etheridge has gone one step further to prove that fans are willing to subscribe monthly if offered the right content.
Why couldn’t Spotify, for argument’s sake, offer a higher-priced ‘Spotify Premium Plus’ subscription tier that includes livestreaming access to concerts by superstar artists like Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, or Post Malone for example? Or simply launch pay-per-view access via its app, from which Spotify could take a slice of the proceeds?
Fact is, Spotify already has the data, the global audience and the tech to pull off a livestreaming launch in a big way.
Expect it to happen sooner rather than later.
How Big Is The Spotify App
The MBW Review is supported by Instrumental, which powers online scouting for A&R and talent teams within the music industry. Their leading scouting platform applies AI processes to Spotify and social data to unearth the fastest growing artists and tracks each day. Get in touch with the Instrumental team to find out how they can help power your scouting efforts.
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