The sky-high barriers historically placed between artists and the consumers eagerly waiting to indulge in their music are quickly disintegrating. Consider music platforms like Spotify as one of the hands with the hammer.
The streaming service behemoth announced today (Sept. 20) that now, artists will be able to publish music directly onto their platform without needing labels as a middle man. As part of a beta program for Spotify for Artists, independent acts now have access to the direct upload tool, which allows them to not only plan for and preview their ideal release day, but also perform quick edits on metadata after it’s already gone live (a la Kanye West and Nicki Minaj).
Uploading music to the site is free.99 for artists—meaning Spotify reportly takes no commission fees—and they automatically receive their royalties for streamed music each month. According to Bloomberg, Spotify claims it has no plans of building its own “label” model or owning the artists’ music. Seems like a win-win situation.
Now in Beta: Upload your music in Spotify for Artists. https://t.co/cNe1R2Wf0X pic.twitter.com/fJJcCymlri
— Spotify for Artists (@spotifyartists) September 20, 2018
The new initiative was one of the top requested features from the platform’s users, and Spotify has shown that they’ve been listening by working with unsigned artists like Chicago poet-slash-rapper Noname, who just released her Room 25 album.
As of right now, the upload tool is only available by invite to few hundred U.S.-based artists, but Spotify looks forward to quickly expanding that roster with a new rollout of invitations.
READ MORE: Spotify Hit With Massive Lawsuit Over Using Music Without A License