Spotify ends beta for independent artists to upload music directly

Spotify is going to end its Upload Beta Program introduced last year. With this beta program, independent musicians and artists had the opportunity to upload works directly to Spotify, without the intervention of, for example, a distributor.

The upload tool will disappear on July 30, and content uploaded by independent artists will also disappear from that point in the beta. July will also be the last month that the artists still receive royalties. Spotify justifies this closure of the Upload Beta Program by stating that it would rather invest money and time in developing tools that allow Spotify to better help artists and labels. The Swedish company also believes that music distribution has already been greatly improved and that it can be better handled by partners.

Spotify says it informed participating artists on Monday about the end of the test. The company says it will help artists migrate to other distributors. TechCrunch reports that Spotify has confirmed that several hundred artists have uploaded music as part of the beta. Several hundred others have also received invitations, but have not uploaded anything yet.

The Upload Beta Program began in September last year and was open to artists from the United States. This allowed them to upload songs and metadata to Spotify quite easily with a few actions.