You’re a musician or you might be the manager of a singer or a band. In the past, you just needed to sign with a record label and they would do the work for you in terms of promotions.
Now, with the advent of the streaming services, you need to run things on your own, especially if you are a smaller band or singer-songwriter.
There is a bit more of an element of self-promotion. That means you need to have a strong presence on streaming services, like Spotify.
In order to do that, you must have a verified artist profile. Listeners will be much more willing to listen to you if they see that than an unverified one.
Fortunately, the process of doing this is fairly straightforward and does not involve promising your firstborn to Spotify. So, how do you do it?
Read on to learn how.
Put Your Music On Spotify
You need to upload your music to the streaming service first. That will be so they will have something for people to be able to listen to once you have done the rest to get your verified artist profile.
How do you do this? There are a variety of services that you can sign up for so that they can do that part for you.
It might seem like another hoop that you have to jump through, but they can do that much more easily than having to do it yourself.
Just do a search on how to get your music onto Spotify and see which result seems the best to you.
Go with a reputable one – perhaps you know someone else who has done something similar.
Lock In Your Profile on Spotify For Artists
OK, you did the above and your music is now on there. Now to get that profile – go to artists.spotify.com and click on the three bars on the top right.
Those three bars are also known as a “hamburger menu” since they resemble a … well .. a hamburger. Now go get a burger if you are hungry after reading that.
The menu will show an option called “Get Access.” Click that and then you will be on your way.
Verify That It’s You
Sign in to Spotify with your account that you signed in with. You’ll get a notice from Spotify to let them know that it is really you that is signing in.
It’s usually in the form of a “Is This You?” screen on your phone or computer.
Set Up Your Artist Profile
Now that you have taken care of that little bit of business, it’s time to get your Spotify presence going.
Find your artist profile and determine if you are doing this as an artist yourself or a member of your record label. Usually you can find the profile by doing a search for your artist name.
Answer Some Questions About Yourself
Here’s the fun part: filling out information boxes. Those exciting things include both your first and last name, your business email, what role you play (artist/manager/label representative), your company.
It’s relatively painless and should only take you a few minutes at the most.
Verify Your Profile Submission
There are a couple of ways that you can do that – connect your Twitter or Instagram profiles or copy/paste a link to your artist/band website. That’s it. Once you have done that, you can click “Submit.”
Don’t expect instant miracles here, though. You won’t suddenly see a blue verification checkmark appear there.
Spotify has to make sure that your submission is accurate and that you are who you say you are.
It’s likely that even Taylor Swift, Beyonce, and Rihanna had to wait a bit to get verified. Well, maybe not those three….
There are benefits to your getting verified on this streaming app.
- While you could just have a basic account, you would not be able to streamline all of your work all onto a single discography. Verified artists have that capability … and it would be a great help to your fans. They would be able to find your work that much easier and could even find songs that are in complications.
- You can create your own personalized playlists. That means you can list the songs that you think people just learning about you should listen to to get the best idea of what you are all about. It’s a way to connect with them and make you seem like a person.
- You can look at analytics about what people are listening to and what songs of yours they like and ones that they don’t care for that much. That would be a great way to curate a concert setlist and be sure to get the best crowd reaction when you play those songs. You’ll never be able to please everyone, but this is a great way to try.
- Spotify will rank you higher in their search results if you have a verified account. If you are an electronic artist and people search for that, your verified account would likely show up really high in the results. People who curate lists would also take you much more seriously and will likely include you on those lists.
- You can personalize your own images on your Spotify page. That is a great way to also reach out to fans by putting up candid images and not just stock ones that can be found anywhere. It’s a great way to set yourself apart from other band or singer pages. You could also put your own header image o the page. It’s just a way to make that page uniquely yours.
As for the cons of verifying your Spotify profile … just kidding. There are no real drawbacks.
Spotify continues to be a juggernaut in the music streaming race and if you have a verified presence there, you are giving your chances of musical success a better boost than not being on there or just having a basic profile.
You will have to do other things too – social media can be a great tool here. Use sites like Instagram or Twitter or even Facebook.
It’s important to cast your net out as far as you can. There are billions of eyes and ears ready to hear and see you.
So there you have it. You don’t just get the cache and credibility of having that verified mark by your name – you can do a ton of other things with this, including expanding your marketing reach, among other things.
So, spend a few minutes of your life and help advance your musical career.
