Spotify’s newest feature brings the streaming service one step closer to becoming a record label, even though they’ll deny this if you ask them. While currently in beta testing, the feature was launched last week, giving musicians the chance to upload their music directly on the app without the influence of a third party.
Spotify for Artists allows musicians to track their metadata, preview how their song will look and sound and, most importantly, deliver the song to an audience.
Unlike Soundcloud and other similar apps, Spotify offers curated playlists which are extremely popular and one of the highlights of the streaming service. If a song gets picked up by one of these playlists, musicians could obtain overnight popularity and thousands of streams. Another perk of Spotify’s new feature is that artists will receive a 50 percent payout for their songs.
While this all sounds great for independent musicians, major executives are wary of Spotify’s true intentions, believing the feature could influence the way in which they do business. According to Dance Music Northwest, the 50 percent payout could lure artists to bypass record labels entirely and choose to upload their music directly to the app, since some labels offer payouts as low as 15 percent.
It’s important to remember that this new feature is still in beta testing and only a handful of independent artists are able to use it. It’s free and it doesn’t have a cap on the amount of content that artists can introduce, so it looks pretty great on the surface.
If you’re not an artist, then this doesn’t affect you in any way. Still, it’s pretty interesting to witness a changing music industry and the drama that’s lurking just around the corner.
