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Spotify partners with DistroKid on direct upload, takes stake in the company

By | Published on Thursday 18 October 2018

Distrokid

Spotify has announced that it will use DIY digital distribution service DistroKid to enhance its new direct upload feature for artists. The streaming firm has also taken a minority stake in the distribution company, which it has been pushing much more proactively than other DIY distributors on the Spotify For Artists website for sometime already.

“For the past five years, DistroKid has served as a go-to service for hundreds of thousands independent artists, helping them deliver their tracks to digital music services around the world, and reaching fans however they choose to consume music”, says Spotify in a statement. “The service has been a trusted and reliable partner to Spotify, which is why they’re a natural choice to enhance the experience for artists using our beta upload feature. As part of this partnership, Spotify has made a passive minority investment in DistroKid”.

Spotify announced the new direct upload feature within its Spotify For Artists platform last month. It will mean that artists can upload their music into the Spotify system directly for the first time, without the need for a label or distributor. Which means DIY artists can earn royalties from Spotify without paying fees or a commission to a distribution firm.

The streaming platform has already been testing the new feature with a very small number of acts and is now inviting other artists to apply to participate in further beta testing.

The partnership with DistroKid overcomes a significant issue with the direct uploading tool – ie that artists need their music to be on all digital services and don’t want to have to be uploading tracks separately to each platform. DistroKid integration means music can still appear everywhere else without any extra work.

Spotify’s formal alliance with the DistroKid company follows the news that the distributor had secured “significant” new investment from Silversmith Capital Partners.



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