In its latest push to build goodwill with artists, Spotify is launching a new interactive site intended to demystify the act of navigating a career in the music industry.
Called In Focus, the new site, which launched on Wednesday (June 1), provides tools, resources and educational materials in 21 focus areas across five career categories, dubbed “Create,” “Promote,” “Connect,” “Earn” and “Learn.” The focus areas were decided upon “thousands of points of feedback” Spotify received through its interactions with artists via social media, the platform’s help center and one-on-one conversations, according to a blog post. Resources listed on the site will be refreshed over time.
“We get it, the music industry today is complex — requiring artists and their teams to take on more responsibility than ever before,” said Rob Fink, senior brand marketing manager at Spotify for Artists, in a statement. “We’re always chatting with artists about the biggest questions and aspirations they have in their personal career journeys, and we designed In Focus as a direct result of that feedback. We want to remove the guesswork, and help artists focus on what matters most to them so they can reach their music goals.”
In Focus presents this information in choose-your-own-adventure style, allowing users to delve into any number of topics geared toward achieving objectives that include improving songwriting and production craft; growing streaming royalties; creating new sources of revenue; reaching new audiences; brand-building; and expanding an artist’s vision beyond audio into other realms, including video, photography and design. All of these insights are informed by Spotify for Artists team members, industry experts and artists including Olivia Rodrigo, Phoebe Bridgers and A$AP Ferg.
Once a user clicks on one of these general topics, they’re taken to a screen that lists a variety of tools and insights. In the “Level Up Your Songwriting” focus area, for example, users can scroll through a glossary of common songwriting terms, listen to episodes of Spotify for Artists’ Song Start educational podcast, download Spotify’s mobile songwriting collaboration app Soundtrap and/or listen to artists and songwriters including Dan Nigro, Greyson Chance and Conor Oberst discuss their process.
In Focus is just one of several artist-centered initiatives that have been launched by Spotify over the years. These include the service’s Fresh Finds artist development program (started in May 2021), as well as integrations that allow artists to list merch, fundraising and even NFT projects directly on their Spotify profiles. In January, Spotify for Artists launched Made to Be Found, an educational website designed to help artists increase their discoverability on the platform. At the same time, it unveiled the beta feature “Source of Streams,” which offers more granular personalized streaming data.
