How to Make a Spotify Artist Account
There is no sign-up form. The profile is created by a release, and what you do is prove it is yours.
Here is how to make a Spotify artist account: you cannot create one directly. The profile is generated when a distributor delivers your first release, and what you do is claim it through Spotify for Artists, which verifies the connection between you and the music.
Once the release is live, go to Spotify for Artists and request access to the profile. Spotify verifies the claim, usually by asking for a social account or through your distributor.
After approval you can edit the image, biography, pitch songs to playlists and see the listening data.
A new profile is judged on one number before anybody presses play, and that number is on the page from day one. Monthly listeners on an artist profile acts on it.
The order catches every new artist, because every other platform works the other way around.
On most networks you sign up and then publish. On Spotify the catalog comes first: a distributor sends the audio and the metadata, Spotify ingests it, and a profile is created as a container for that music. Before a release exists there is nothing to claim and nothing to log into.
That has two consequences worth planning around.
First, the artist name in the metadata of your first release becomes the profile. Getting it wrong, or letting a distributor attach the track to an existing artist with the same name, produces a mess that takes support tickets to untangle. Checking the artist link before the release date is far easier than fixing it afterwards.
Second, the claim is about identity rather than ownership of the recording. Spotify asks for something that connects you to the music publicly, which is why a dormant social account or an unfinished website slows the process down.
And Spotify for Artists is free. The paid part of being on Spotify is distribution, which is a separate service with its own fee or revenue share.
Getting the first release out
Spotify does not accept uploads directly from artists. A distributor or an aggregator delivers the music.
The metadata you give them is what creates or links the artist profile, so check the artist name spelling and any existing profile they want to attach it to.
Delivery takes time, and most distributors recommend submitting weeks ahead of the release date.
That lead time is also what makes a playlist pitch possible, since pitching requires an unreleased track.
Lead time is also what makes a playlist pitch possible, because pitching requires an unreleased track. A release delivered three days before the date can still go live and has already missed the only editorial route Spotify offers.
Claiming the profile
Go to Spotify for Artists and request access, either directly or through your distributor's dashboard.
Spotify asks for verification, commonly a social account connected to the artist.
Approval times vary and the request can be resubmitted if it is refused.
Team members can be added afterwards with their own access, which is how managers and labels get in without sharing a login.
Team access is worth setting up at the same time. Managers, labels and collaborators can each hold their own access rather than sharing one login, and untangling a shared login later is harder than granting access now.
What the dashboard gives you
Listener and stream numbers, by track, by playlist and by source.
The ability to edit the profile image, the biography, the artist pick and the gallery.
Playlist pitching for unreleased tracks, which is the main editorial route into Spotify's own playlists.
And Canvas, the short looping visual that replaces the static artwork in the player.
The headline number has a specific definition, set out in what monthly listeners measure, and pitching is one of several routes onto playlists, compared in getting on playlists.
Choosing a distributor you can leave
The distributor is the part of this that is genuinely hard to undo, and the differences that matter are rarely in the marketing.
Ask how a release is moved if you leave. Catalogues can be migrated, but the process ranges from a form to a renegotiation, and the links and stream counts on an existing release are what is at risk.
Ask what happens if you stop paying. Some services remove the music from stores when a subscription lapses, which takes a working release offline along with its playlist placements.
Check whether the artist profile they create is linked to an account you control, because that is the link that produces the wrong-artist problem later.
Compare the fee structure honestly: a yearly fee and a revenue share are not comparable until you know your own volume.
And read what they claim about rights. A distributor needs a license to distribute and nothing more; anything that reads like an assignment of ownership is a different kind of contract.
Common problems
Music appearing under the wrong artist, which happens when a distributor matches a name to an existing profile.
Two profiles for the same artist, which requires a merge request through support.
A claim refused for want of verification, usually solved by connecting a social account with matching activity.
And a profile with no music, which cannot exist: if there is no release, there is nothing to claim.
Two profiles for the same artist is the one worth catching early. It happens when a distributor creates a new profile instead of linking to the existing one, and merging them is a support request that takes time while the streams sit split across both.
After the profile exists
Fill the biography and the image. An empty profile converts a curious listener into nothing.
Pitch every release, early. The pitch is also how Spotify's systems learn what the track is.
Watch the sources data rather than the totals: where listening comes from tells you what to repeat.
And keep the distributor relationship tidy, because the catalog is delivered through them and leaving one can take the music with it.
An empty profile converts a curious listener into nothing, and the first impression is numeric. Monthly listeners on an artist profile acts on that, and the other Spotify services we carry sit on one page.
The artist pick is the most under-used field on the page. It puts one track, playlist or album at the top of the profile with a short note, and it is the only part of the layout you control for a visitor who arrived from a single song.
Questions people ask about artist profiles
Can I upload music to Spotify myself?
No. Spotify takes music from distributors, and the artist profile is created when your first release is delivered.
Is Spotify for Artists free?
Yes. The cost of being on Spotify is the distributor's fee or revenue share, not the artist dashboard.
How long does claiming take?
It varies. Verification usually asks for a social account connected to the artist, and a refused request can be resubmitted.
My song is on the wrong artist profile. What now?
The distributor's metadata linked it incorrectly. They can request a correction, and Spotify support handles merges and splits.
Do I need a profile to pitch playlists?
Yes, and the track has to be unreleased at the time of the pitch, which is why distribution lead time matters.
Can a manager have access?
Yes. Team members can be added to Spotify for Artists with their own access rather than sharing a login.
Keep reading
- monthly listeners on an artist profile — A new profile is judged on one number before anybody presses play, and monthly listeners on an artist profile acts on it.
- what monthly listeners measure — The headline number has a specific definition, and what monthly listeners measure sets it out.
- getting on playlists — Pitching is the editorial route, and getting on playlists covers it along with the others.