Spotify on a smartphone
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Spotify starts letting indie artists upload music directly

Streaming giant Spotify today announced that certain indie artists will now be able to upload music directly to to the service, bypassing the need for third-party distributors, as reported by Billboard. It’ called Spotify For Artists.

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And will be available to a “select group” of independent artists beginning this week. The special streaming account is beta launching after being tested with acts such as Hot Shade, Noname, VIAA and Michael Brun.

It’s a mold-breaking move for Spotify, and one that completely exes the indie-music middle man. Previously, indie artists had to use outside distributors such as DistroKid or TuneCore to get their music onto the service.

“We’ve focused on making the tool easy, flexible and transparent,” says Spotify’s Kene Anoliefo. “There will be no limit or constraint on how often they can upload. We think that can open up a really interesting creative space for artists.”

But how does it work? Apparently, unsigned artists who don’t have an active distribution agreement can simply log onto an Artists account and upload their music along with the applicable info, and voilà, direct-to-streaming tunes:

“For those artists who control their copyrights and do not have label or distribution agreements in place, they can log into their Spotify For Artists account, upload their music, fill in relevant metadata information, preview how the upload will look on their page and set the song to go live.”

Indeed, an artist would need to own the copyright for the all of songs they are uploading to the app. As for accounting, Spotify will reportedly do monthly artist royalty processing and reports via payment processor Swipe.

Spotify tried out some direct-to-artist deals before, a maneuver that seemingly turned some industry heads. Is the music streaming service paving the way for the future of artist-created music content on streaming sites?

What do you think about the streaming company’s new Spotify For Artists feature? If you’re in an indie band, do you plan on using the tool that allows you to upload music directly to the service? Sound off in the comments section!

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