Photo Credit: Spotify
Spotify is launching ‘Songwriter Pages’ as a way to give behind-the-music creators a better digital presence.
The new program allows Spotify listeners to click on songwriters’ names in the credits. A profile pops up, showcasing all the songs that the songwriter has credits in on Spotify. It also showcases a list of their most frequent collaborators and links to their social media accounts.
Spotify says the increased focus on songwriters is possible because labels and distributors are passing along more info. Spotify began publicly displaying songwriting credits in 2018. Since then, the digital streaming service saw a 60% increase in how often that information is shared.
Some of the first songwriters with ‘Songwriter Pages’ include Fraser T Smith, Meghan Trainor, Missy Elliott, Teddy Geiger, Ben Billions, and Justin Tranter.
The ‘Songwriter Pages’ feature for Spotify is currently in beta. Spotify says publishers enable the pages in partnership with the songwriters. For now, only a limited number of songwriters will have pages and the new “Written By” playlist feature.
Spotify’s efforts to recognize creatives are a step in the right direction. All of this information used to be available right on the album; it got lost in the shift to digital music. Now Spotify is using its position as a platform to give credit where credit is due.
Despite all the forward-facing goodwill toward songwriters – Spotify doesn’t want to pay them too much.
See the new feature in action by right-clicking on a track or tapping the “…” next to the track on mobile. Hit the ‘Song Credits’ button that shows up. If a songwriter page exists for that person, their name will be clickable.
Every songwriter page also includes a “Written By” playlist that consists of the author’s entire body of work. Tapping “Listen on Spotify” will open the playlist for listening.