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Spotify partners with Shopify

By | Published on Thursday 21 October 2021

Spotify

Spotify has announced a new partnership with Shopify. No, they’re not merging to become Shpotify, sadly. But they are collaborating to offer all and any music-makers signed up to Spotify For Artists some nice new e-commerce options.

It has been possible for artists to upsell physical items – ie discs and merchandise – via their Spotify profiles for a while now, of course, thanks to a partnership with Merchbar that launched in 2016.

That integration has always been a somewhat lacklustre affair though, with Spotify not getting too involved in the process. Basically artists can put links to a limited number of items on their Spotify profile, which when clicked take fans off to a relevant page on the Merchbar website.

Although this new Shopify partnership is being presented as something big, new and exciting, it’s basically just the same thing. Except that the integration is with Shopify. Which is good news for those artists, managers and labels who already use Shopify for their direct-to-fan sales elsewhere, many of whom almost certainly hate Merchbar.

You can still only list three items within Spotify, though, and in the mobile app they’ll still be buried right down at the bottom of the profile page where it’s unlikely anyone will ever see them. But on the up side, artists referred by Spotify will get a 90 day free Shopify trial. So that’s nice.

Hey, if you want to read some quotes from some people who will make this all sound like a much much bigger deal, here you go…

“For many fans, Spotify is the primary way they interact with an artists’ music, and we are excited to give artists a new way to capitalise on that moment”, says Camille Hearst, Head Of Spotify For Artists. “We want to provide artists with as many resources as possible to help turn listeners into fans, fans into superfans and, ultimately, help artists earn more. The integration of Shopify’s powerful backend for powering commerce presents a significant step forward in our efforts to help artists maximise additional revenue streams and give them agency over their careers”.

Director Of Product at Shopify, Amir Kabbara, adds: “Thousands of artists already choose Shopify as their commerce platform, and now we’re bringing fans and artists even closer together with the launch of the Spotify channel. Artists today are entrepreneurial. They’re building multifaceted brands and businesses, and now we’re making it easier for them to meet fans where they are. By bringing entrepreneurship to Spotify, we’re empowering artists to think beyond the traditional merch table with new ways to monetise, and to experiment with their brands through commerce”.

Artists will still be able to sell stuff within Spotify through Merchbar if they want to, although it will no longer be the default option in countries where the Shopify integration is available (in fact, if you want to continue selling through Merchbar, you will seemingly have to go and actively plug it back in to your profile for it to continue working).

The Shopify integration is currently available to artists in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US.



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