Spotify Launches Live Audio Rooms Where Artists Can Connect With Their Top Fans

Fans will have the ability to financially support artists by buying merch and concert tickets and giving out tips in real-time.

Spotify
Mateusz Slodkowski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via GI

Spotify is creating a new opportunity for artists to both connect with and be directly supported by fans.

On Thursday (April 21), the music streaming platform announced that it’s testing live audio rooms on its Spotify Live app — an all-new feature that allows artists to host intimate virtual spaces accessible to their top fans. During these sessions, fans can make financial contributions to the artists by buying merch and concert tickets or by giving tips; they will also be able to have “music-focused conversations” with their favorite stars.

Top fans will be identified through Spotify’s “Fan First” program, which targets fans using data on factors including music listening behavior and followers.

Camille Hearst, head of Spotify for Artists, tells Billboard, “Ultimately, what we want to do is enable a new world of helping artists build a business on Spotify. We feel there’s a new opportunity to connect artists directly with their fans in a way that hasn’t been possible before.” Hearst went on to note that during an earlier testing phase with a select group of artists, fans who attended a live audio room “streamed the artists significantly more in the following days and weeks compared to similar fans.”

Along with the announcement, Spotify livestreamed a new episode of its Masterclass series, titled Making Money on Spotify, that highlights the platform’s existing monetization opportunities, including artist merchandise and ticketing, plus reveals upcoming revenue-generating initiatives that Spotify plans to launch for musicians. Starting Thursday (April 21), the episode will be available to stream on Spotify for Artists, YouTube and Spotify.

Launched earlier this month, Spotify Live was formerly known as Spotify Greenroom, which evolved out of Locker Room, the live audio app Spotify acquired in March 2021 via the purchase of Betty Labs. On Saturday (April 16), the platform livestreamed the album-release party for Swedish House Mafia’s Paradise Again, which was held at a private Coachella afterparty.

To sign up to test the feature, artists can visit https://spoti.fi/livetest.

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