Spotify rescinds its direct-upload program for artists

Spotify announced the termination of its direct-upload program after rolling out the beta platform in September 2018. This directly affects artists who were using the program to directly upload tracks to Spotify. Now, artists have to use the streaming platform’s distribution partners such as Distrokid, CD Baby, Tunecore, Ditto, Stem, and others; thus paying a fee to upload music.

In a statement by Spotify, they’ve publicly rationalized the decision as support for their distribution partners that are already in place to serve the artist community and quality control, helping protect other artists from copyright infringement.

Artists who’ve already taken advantage of the self-distribution beta and gained high play counts and playlist placements have before July 30 to chose an approved distributor. Spotify is working closely with the distributors to ensure no valuable data is lost and are encouraging artists whose lives were enriched by the fleeting guise of independence to use Spotify for Artists and their playlist submission tool for a more hands-on resources for Spotify uploads.

H/T: Highsnobiety