Tag: ticketing

Spotify Takes to the Stage: Connecting Artists With Concertgoers

March 8, 2023

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Today at Spotify Stream On, artists, songwriters, podcasters, and authors from around the world joined us for a day of news, networking, and inspiration—and a deeper look into how artists can better connect with their fans on our platform. And what better way to do that than helping fans experience their favorite artists IRL?

Over half of our listeners are unaware of when their favorite artists are in town. Of those users, one in three say they would have gone to the concert had they known about it. So in 2022, we worked with artists, venues, and ticketing partners to list over 840,000 concerts on our Live Events Feed, which is one of our most rapidly growing channels—and our users’ personal gig calendar. We even closed out 2022 by featuring personalized concert recommendations in the Wrapped hub for the first time—across more than 60 languages globally. All this goes further to help artists reach more fans of their music and help fans make sure they never miss a show. 

In 2023, we’re going to keep diving headfirst into concert discoverability.

For artists, this means more places to inform fans about their latest shows and tours. First, we’ll be integrating ticket offers into the “Now Playing” view so artists can grab a listener’s attention right when their music is resonating most. Additionally, artists can spotlight concert dates to the top of their profiles, and soon to their This Is playlists. With these new ticketing features, we’ll not only help artists better promote their shows, but also make sure that Spotify is our listeners’ go-to resource for finding concerts they love.

Fans can make sure they never miss another show with these concert integration opportunities right in the Spotify app:

Live Events Feed: Our main in-app concert destination lets you find concert listings based on your location and favorite artists. You can also adjust your location to browse concerts in other cities and countries, all personalized to your taste.

“Interested” button: Wherever you see a concert listing, you’ll be able to hit the “Interested” button and tag the events you want to attend. That way in the future, you can check in on your personal gig calendar in the Live Events Feed.

Fans First Emails: Make sure you’re following and streaming your favorite artists on Spotify for the chance to be recognized as a top listener—we send Fans First emails and notifications to those engaged users, putting them at the front of the line for special access to concert pre-sales and merch exclusives. 

Of course, no concert is complete without the merch table. While you can currently find your favorite artists’ merch on their profile pages and their album and single pages, we’re also going to start adding it to the “Now Playing” view so you can buy the merch after falling in love with their song.

Fans Wanting To Wear Merch From Their Top Wrapped Artists Leads to the Biggest Week of Artist Merch Sales in Spotify History

December 8, 2022

Each year when Spotify Wrapped rolls around, listeners eagerly look forward to seeing their top-streamed artists revealed. And 2022 Wrapped was no different. Last week, millions of fans around the globe learned about their unique music listening personalities as well as the patterns behind their plays. But this year, as always, we took Wrapped a step further with new stories and features—including artist merch in the app to help fans get closer to their favorite artists. 

Fans love to rep their favorite artists, and they especially love to do so after seeing their Wrapped results: In the seven days since launching Wrapped, we’ve seen the highest-grossing merch sales week for artists in Spotify history. 

Connecting fans with ways to express their favorite fandoms and lend support to the artists they love is key to fulfilling our mission of enabling artists to live off their art. In the weeks leading up to Wrapped, artists listed their top merch items on their Spotify profiles through Spotify for Artists to capitalize on all the increased attention their profiles would get on the big day. Then, during Wrapped, we debuted a new shelf of merch offers in the Wrapped hub and sent a personalized email to fans with merch from their top artists of the year. Fans of Ghost, Smino, NIKI, Joji, Elton John, Fireboy DML, and Jack Harlow even got early access to exclusive merchandise through Spotify, further underscoring our commitment to helping artists build new revenue streams on Spotify. 

Though selling merch may seem unexpected, it’s impactful. “By our offering merch on Spotify, millions of the world’s most engaged music fans can now support their favorite artists by buying merch right where they’re already listening,” says Alex Lavian, Product Marketing Lead, Spotify for Artists. “This helps us get closer to achieving our goal of providing a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art.”

We asked Alex to break down these impactful merch sales even further. 

Why merch? 

Merch is an important source of revenue for artists, and we’re actively investing in new revenue opportunities for artists beyond streaming royalties. Enabling artists to sell merch on Spotify drives a deeper connection between them and their fans. Plus, it’s a natural place for fans to buy things from the artists they love. Just like how fans can’t resist the merch table after an amazing live performance, Spotify can share offers with fans at that perfect moment, whether it’s right after streaming an album, discovering an artist for the first time, or learning an artist was your most streamed that year. We think there’s a huge opportunity to help artists reach listeners with their merch at just the right moment. 

How does this contribute to greater earnings for artists?  

The business of being an artist is complex and multifaceted—it relies on multiple income streams from multiple artist-to-fan touch points, including streaming music, selling merch and tickets, collecting tips, and more. Just as we enabled artists to list their merch in the Wrapped Hub, we also did the same with upcoming tour dates, so that fans can easily experience the artist live and in-person as well as—contributing to yet another revenue stream for the creator. There’s a huge opportunity for Spotify to be an impactful sales channel for artists and we’re making lots of progress.

How does merch in Wrapped build brand love with fans? 

This year merch played a central role in the Wrapped campaign to give fans new ways to express their fandom and support the artists they love. Merch is a relatively new vertical for Spotify and one we’re extremely excited about. We aim to build a culture around merch on Spotify, establishing Spotify as a destination for unique offerings, effective promotions, and meaningful revenue.

Find merch from your favorite artists in the Wrapped hub.