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Spotify combines its data and marketing portals for artists and labels
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 18 May 2020
Spotify last week formally announced the long-expected merger of its two respective data portals for artists and labels. In the future artists and their management teams – and the labels and distributors they work with – will all be able to access data and marketing tools from the streaming service through the same platform, to be known as Spotify For Artists.
Currently Spotify For Artists is aimed at artists and managers, while labels and distributors have access to Spotify Analytics. The two portals provide access to very similar data and tools. But the former was built as part of Spotify’s outreach to artists and managers, while the latter was added to help those labels who haven’t built their own platforms for processing the raw data feed that the streaming firm also provides its licensing partners.
Both also host Spotify’s playlist pitching tool that has become increasingly important for music marketeers since its launch in 2018.
In a blog post on Friday, Spotify said: “As we’ve listened to feedback and seen how people use Spotify For Artists and Spotify Analytics, it’s been clear just how collaborative artists and their teams are in analysing data and planning promotional strategies. In an effort to empower artists, managers and labels to work together as seamlessly as possible, we’re bringing everyone together in one place: Spotify for Artists”.
“Now, with access to the same set of data and insights, and the ability to join in managing an artist’s presence across Spotify, we’re looking forward to fostering better collaboration between teams”, the blog post added, “especially for artists signed to a label”
Although it makes sense to bring the two portals together – and it means that artists, managers and labels will all benefit from future updates at the same time – obviously managers and labels will interact with the data and tools in different ways. Managers need to see an artist’s entire presence on Spotify, whereas labels only need access to recordings they have released. But at the same time, labels – of course – are constantly working on recordings from a number of artists.
Spotify reckons it’s got all that sorted, plus actions within the portal will all be logged, so if the label screws something up the manager can see it, and vice versa.
For Spotify For Artists users, not much will change in the short term, except that labels will appear as members of each signed artist’s team. For labels who use Spotify Analytics, they should expect an email explaining how the shift will work over the next few months.
