Spotify launches tool that lets artists pay to feature on homescreen, Showcase

Spotify has launched a new tool that allows artists to buy sponsored music placements on the site’s homepage.

The streaming giant announced the new marketing feature, named Showcase, in a blog post last Wednesday (13th September), offering artists a new way to strategically target particular types of listeners.

Artists can select a song or an entire album to appear as a mobile banner, which can be set to target a specific type of listener from 30 markets at launch. They will also be able to select a headline for the Showcase banner, including ‘New release’, ‘Getting buzz’, ‘On tour’, and others. The banners will note that a recommendation has been sponsored.

Showcase recommendations will appear as a mobile banner at the top of Spotify’s homescreen. The company claims that users who see a Showcase promotion are six times more likely to stream the promoted release.

The tool is being pitched as a way for artists to maintain the momentum of new releases. “Promoting new releases also remains critical, but not only during the release moment: On average, 75% of a release’s first-year streams happen after the first month,” the company stated in its blog post announcing the feature.

Along with their “active audience", which Spotify defines as listeners who have intentionally played a song over the past 28 days, artists will also be able to target “super” listeners (the most dedicated active listeners from over the past 28 days), “moderate” listeners (those who have streamed tracks less frequently but still intentionally), and “light” listeners, which covers anyone who’s streamed a song once or twice over the past 28 days.

To utilise the new tool, musicians will need to meet certain eligibility criteria including having accumulated at least 1,000 streams over the past 28 days in one of the available target markets. The artists can set their budget within specified limits according to the Cost Per Click (CPC) model, which charges advertisers based on the number of times their ads were displayed to their target audience. Budgets for Showcase campaigns start at $100 when booked via Spotify for Artists.

Artists who use Showcase will be able to see a detailed breakdown of each campaign, including metrics on engagement with their most active audience compared with new listeners and those who haven’t listened for over two years.

Showcase joins the platform’s other marketing tools announced earlier this year at Spotify’s ‘Stream On’ event in LA, including a new ‘Discovery Mode’ which gives artists the chance to tailor which tracks are prioritised by the algorithm, and new full-screen sponsored recommendations known as ‘Marquee’.

Spotify users should start seeing the sponsored recommendations in the coming weeks.

Read the full launch campaign from Spotify here.