Here’s how you can donate to your favorite artists on Spotify

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has caused a number of tour and show cancellations worldwide, greatly impacting artists financially. Today, Spotify has announced its latest scheme to help aid artists during this difficult time.

Spotify is now allowing fans to donate directly to their favorite artists and charities through their streaming service.

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Launching today, the Artist Fundraising Pick scheme allows fans to donate to artists via CashApp, GoFundMe and PayPal. Artists and their extended crews will receive the donated money.

To receive donations, artists can now add an Artist Fundraising Pick badge to their Spotify profiles. The badge will appear next to the existing Artist’s Pick section where artists’ most recent music can be viewed.

Spotify shared in a new blog post why they decided to launch the Artist Fundraising Pick scheme.

“We felt we could uniquely help by providing the global reach of Spotify to artists who are fundraising during this challenging time,” the post reads. “To help them get the word out to fans, many of whom visit them on Spotify every day. And we’ve been really inspired by fans that want to help the artists they love and have been making direct donations.”

Artists can also choose to direct fans towards a range of charities involved in Spotify’s ongoing COVID-19 Music Relief Project that launched in March. Some of the charitable causes involved are Help Musicians (U.K.), MusiCares (U.S.), PRS Foundation (U.K.) and more. In addition, Spotify is matching individual donations up to a total company contribution of $10 million. The full list of participating charities is available here.

All of this follows a petition that surfaced in March, urging Spotify to pay artists more during the coronavirus pandemic. The petition is pushing for the streaming service to pay artists triple what they are currently and make it permanent.

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They are also asking the company to donate $500,000 to Sweet Relief’s COVID-19 fund which is seeking to offer economic help to struggling artists affected by the pandemic.

Spotify’s royalty payments have been in the media spotlight many times over the years. Back in January, Independent cellist Zoë Keating broke down her royalty payments to Business Insider. With the information, it was revealed that Spotify pays the least per stream than Apple Music, Tidal and Amazon Music.

What do you think of Spotify’s Artist Fundraising Pick scheme? Let us know in the comments below!

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