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Business News Digital
Spotify takes playlist pitching tool out of beta
By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 25 October 2018
Spotify yesterday announced that its playlist pitching tool for DIY artists is now out of beta. The streaming firm first added the tool to its Spotify For Artists website back in July.
A post on the Spotify For Artists website declared: “A few months ago, we unveiled a beta feature … that gives artists, labels, and teams the ability to share new music directly with our editorial team for playlist consideration. Since the feature became available in July more than 67,000 artists and labels have submitted music and now we’re excited to announce our playlist submission feature is officially out of beta”.
The tool aims to level the playing field a little for grassroots artists who don’t have labels or distributors with personal contacts among the teams that curate the Spotify-owned playlists. Those playlists, of course, drive lots of listening and discovery on the Spotify platform.
With thousands of artists and labels pushing new music through the pitching tool, you’d be forgiven for wondering just how many DIY artists could genuinely benefit. However, “since the beta began”, the streaming company insists, “over 10,000 artists have been added to Spotify editorial playlists for the first time connecting their music with thousands of new fans”. And isn’t that swell?
And even for those artists not selected for some playlist love, there’s a consolation prize. “While we can’t guarantee [a playlist spot] for every artist every time”, the blog post explains, “what’s especially great about this new tool is, whether your new song is featured in an editorial playlist or not, it’ll always show up in all of your followers’ Release Radar playlists”.
Oh, and there’s more! “Plus the additional metadata you provide when you upload it will help us recommend it to potential new fans for years to come”.
Super swell. Of course, away from all the swellness, tools like this and the still-in-beta widget for directly uploading music into Spotify’s system all contribute to the narrative of the streaming giant reducing the importance of labels and distributors in the digital supply chain.
That is a narrative you may or may not choose to buy into. We’re about to launch a tool where you’ll be able to pitch arguments for and against the theory.
