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Spotify Announces New Partnerships

Jason Tate

Spotify has made a bunch of new announcements. They’ve partnered with Live Nation:

Spotify said that starting in the U.S. this summer, select artists will be able to use Reserved to set aside tickets for fans on the platform. The platform has partnered with Live Nation on the program as part of a multiyear agreement. The platform will use streams, shares and other types of activity to “identify an artist’s most dedicated fans and hold two tour tickets for them.”

And they have a new agreement with UMG to let users create AI covers and remixes:

[W]ill enable Spotify to launch a new tool allowing fans to create covers and remixes of their favorite songs from participating artists and songwriters. 

The tool will be powered by generative AI technology that the announcement states “will open up additional revenue streams and new ways to drive discovery.”

Spotify AI Hijacking Expands to Jazz

Jason Tate

Digital Music News:

Numerous jazz musicians, including American pianist Jason Moran, and Danish musicians Carsten Dahl, Thomas Blachman, and Chris Minh Doky, face a deluge of AI-generated tracks—often entirely unrelated to their own work—uploaded to their official streaming profiles without consent.

“There’s not even a piano player on this whole damn record,” Moran, the former artistic director for jazz at the Kennedy Center, remarked on an EP titled For You. The fake album appeared on his Spotify profile and was brought to his attention by another musician friend. “It wasn’t even remotely close to anything I would make.”

Spotify Adds Video Controls

Jason Tate

Spotify now lets you turn off video content in the app.

We’ll also be introducing new settings so all Premium and Basic users—whether on Individual, Duo, Family, or Student plans—and all users on our free service can control how video appears in their app. The settings update will begin rolling out to all users globally this month. This ensures that all listeners, from individuals to families, can shape an experience that feels right for them.

Letting Artists Vet Releases Before They Appear on Streaming

Jason Tate

James Hanley:

The streaming platform is piloting a new opt-in feature that lets artists review and approve eligible releases before they go live.

The company says protecting artist identity has become “a top priority for 2026,” noting that “the rise of easy-to-produce AI tracks has made the [misattribution] problem worse” across streaming services.

Spotify’s new Artist Profile Protection feature — now in limited beta — has been designed to combat ongoing issues with misattributed releases, whether from metadata errors, artists sharing the same name, or “bad actors” who are “maliciously” attaching music to artists’ profiles.

This is one of those things that’s almost unbelievable it hasn’t always been the default. And seeing the Cartel fake AI song appear last week is another reminder why.

Spotify to Let Your Edit Your Algorithm

Jason Tate

Sarah Perez, writing for TechCrunch:

This Taste Profile is key to Spotify’s recommendations, including personalized playlists like Discover Weekly, Made For You recommendations, and the year-end review known as Spotify Wrapped, among other things. 

Starting with Premium listeners initially in New Zealand, Spotify will allow users to see all their listening data in one place in the app, including music, podcasts, and audiobooks. Users will then be able to edit this profile and even fine-tune future recommendations by asking for more or less of a certain vibe. After doing so, the app’s home page will reflect a different set of suggestions.

Spotify Goes All in on AI Coding

Jason Tate

Sarah Perez, writing for TechCrunch:

Has AI coding reached a tipping point? That seems to be the case for Spotify at least, which shared this week during its fourth-quarter earnings call that the best developers at the company “have not written a single line of code since December.” That statement, from Spotify co-CEO Gustav Söderström, came alongside other comments about how the company is using AI to accelerate development.

Spotify Launch “About the Song” Feature

Jason Tate

Aisha Malik, writing for TechCrunch:

Spotify is rolling out a new “About the Song” feature that lets users explore the stories behind the music they’re listening to, the company announced on Friday. The feature displays short story cards that users can swipe through and rate with a thumbs-up or thumbs-down.

These short, swipeable stories are summarized from third-party sources to highlight interesting details and behind-the-scenes moments, the company says.

Spotify Raising Prices Again

Jason Tate

Spotify is once again raising prices:

Individual Premium plans are now $12.99 per month (up from $11.99), while Duo subscribers will now pay $18.99 per month (up from $16.99). Meanwhile, family plans have increased to $21.99 per month (up from $19.99), and student plans rose by $1 to $6.99 per month.

These pricing changes take immediate effect for new subscribers and will roll out to existing Premium customers in the US, Estonia, and Latvia over the next month.

Djo Tops the Spotify Charts

Jason Tate

Djo, the project by actor Joe Kerry (Steve from Stranger Things) has the new number one song on Spotify’s Global Charts.

The track originally came out on his 2022 album, Decide, but has since been released as a standalone single after gaining some traction. Now, the song is sitting pretty at #1 on Spotify’s Global Chart with 6.5 million streams—but it’s not the first time it’s enjoyed the view. “End of Beginning” went viral on TikTok in 2024, which saw it reach the milestone for the first time. It’s also #1 on the U.S. Spotify Chart with 1.38 million streams.

US Administration Threatens Spotify

Jason Tate

Stuart Dredge, writing fro Music Ally:

Spotify has been taking heat in recent months for its decision to accept and run recruitment ads for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

Now, in an unwelcome end-of-year twist for the company, it’s being threatened by the US administration with new “fees or restrictions” on its business. Not because of anything Spotify has done, but because of intensifying tensions between the US and the European Union.

This being 2025 (and this being this US administration) the threat was made in a post on X by the official United States Trade Representative account.