Spotify for Artists: how to claim, verify and use your profile
Spotify for Artists is the free app and website where you control your profile, pitch new songs to the editors and see who is listening. Here is how to get access, what the verified badge requires and what to do with each tool before and after a release.
The rules below come from Spotify’s own help pages for artists (support.spotify.com/artists), checked on October 13, 2026. Spotify changes its tools often: if something here no longer matches what you see in the app, the app is right.
What Spotify for Artists is
Spotify for Artists is Spotify’s free tool for artists and their teams, on the web and as a phone app. It does not put your music on Spotify — a distributor or a label does that. Once your music is there, Spotify for Artists lets you edit your profile, pitch unreleased songs to the editorial team, add a Canvas to your tracks and see your listeners, streams and playlists.
How to get access (claim your profile)
According to Spotify’s help page:
- Artists and managers claim an artist profile; labels and distributors create a label team.
- To claim a profile you fill in the access request form and add a link to the artist’s website or social accounts so Spotify can verify your identity. Requests are reviewed by hand and approval can take a few days.
- If you release through a distributor that Spotify lists as a preferred provider, access is granted automatically when you send the request.
- Only one request per profile can be under review at a time. If the profile is already claimed, ask its Admin to invite you.
- Before your first release: ask your label or distributor for your artist link (or URI) and contact Spotify support with that link and the UPC or EAN of the upcoming release. (Not sure what a UPC is? See ISRC and UPC codes, explained.)
Inside the team there are roles: Admins manage access, and Admins and Editors can edit the profile and pitch songs. Give your manager or label the role they need, not more.
How to get verified on Spotify
Getting access to Spotify for Artists is not the same as the verified badge. Spotify’s “Verified by Spotify” page says the badge goes to artists who meet criteria in three areas:
| Area | What Spotify looks at |
|---|---|
| Listener activity | People seeking out the artist over time. Spotify gives as examples at least 10,000 monthly active listeners for three months in a row and at least 1,000 followers, and may also consider artists with cultural relevance who don’t reach those numbers. |
| Following the rules | No repeated spam, impersonation or other policy violations. The badge can be removed later. |
| An authentic profile | An identifiable artist with a real catalog: an honest bio, mostly music (not noise or spoken word), and public signs such as linked social accounts, concert dates or merch. Profiles that mainly present an AI-generated artist or persona are not eligible; artists who use AI tools as part of their process can be. |
There is no form to request the badge: Spotify reviews profiles on a rolling basis and meeting the criteria does not guarantee it. What you can control is the third row — a complete, honest profile with your socials and shows — and the slow work of growing listeners who come back.
Blue checkmark vs. badge. Since January 28, 2026, Spotify has been replacing the blue “Verified Artist” checkmark with a “Registered Artist” label in the About section of the profile. It only means the profile is claimed and managed in Spotify for Artists, and Spotify says it doesn’t change visibility, discovery, royalties or access to tools. The “Verified by Spotify” badge above is a separate thing.
Setting up your profile
- Bio: up to 1,500 characters, with links to other artists, releases and playlists on Spotify and to your social accounts. Write it like the first paragraph of your EPK: who you are, what your music sounds like, what’s new.
- Photos: a profile image, a header and a gallery. Spotify’s image guidelines ask for no text, logos or release promotion inside the photos; keep the face centered because each screen crops it differently.
- Artist Pick: the item pinned at the top of your profile (a new single, a playlist, a show). Change it with every release.
- Concerts and merch: when they are connected, they show on the profile — and they also count as signs of an authentic artist.
Pitching a song to playlist editors
From Spotify’s pitching help page:
- You pitch from Music → Upcoming, with an unreleased song. Once the song is out, it can no longer be pitched.
- Pitch at least 7 days before release: then the song goes to your followers’ Release Radar. That part is guaranteed; editorial playlists are not. More on Release Radar and Discover Weekly in how the Spotify algorithm works.
- One song at a time. Compilations and songs where you are only a featured artist can’t be pitched.
- Admins and Editors can pitch. More detail (genre, mood, instruments, the story of the song, your plans) gives the editors more to work with.
In practice, that means your distributor needs the release well before the 7 days — which is why the delivery date is near the top of any release planning checklist. For albums and EPs, Spotify also has Countdown Pages with pre-saves; see how pre-saves work. For editorial, algorithmic and independent playlists in detail, read how to get on Spotify playlists.
Canvas: the looping video
A Canvas is the short vertical loop that plays behind a track in the Spotify app. Spotify’s guidelines: 3 to 8 seconds, vertical 9:16, between 720 and 1080 px tall, as an MP4 or JPG. They advise against footage of people talking or singing (it can’t sync with the song), fast cuts and strong flashing, and suggest keeping important things away from the edges.
You don’t need a shoot: TONTRIA Clips makes the Canvas and the rest of the release assets from your cover and your song, in the right format. The same material can become short clips for TikTok, Reels and Shorts and a lyric video.
Reading your stats
The Audience and Music sections show listeners, streams, saves, followers, where your listeners are and which playlists you are on. Three questions are worth asking after every release:
- Where do the streams come from? Your profile and library (your fans), algorithmic playlists (Spotify recommending you) or editorial and listener playlists.
- Which cities? They tell you where to play, where to spend on ads and which languages to use in captions.
- Does the song keep listeners? Saves and repeat listeners say more than a spike of streams in the first week.
How you get paid for Spotify streams
Spotify for Artists shows streams, not money. According to Spotify’s royalty pages:
- Spotify does not pay artists directly for recordings: it pays the rights holder that delivered the music (your label or distributor), who pays you under your contract.
- There is no fixed rate per stream: rights holders share the net revenue from subscriptions and ads according to their share of all streams in the month (“streamshare”).
- Since April 2024, a track must reach at least 1,000 streams in the previous 12 months (and a minimum of unique listeners that Spotify does not publish) to generate recording royalties.
- The songwriting side is paid separately to publishers and collecting societies.
The full picture — master, publishing, performance and mechanicals — is in how music royalties work, and the other income streams are in how to make money from music.
A routine for every release
| When | In Spotify for Artists |
|---|---|
| 3–4 weeks before | Release delivered to the distributor; check it appears under Upcoming. |
| 2–3 weeks before | Pitch the song with every detail; upload the Canvas. |
| Release day | Artist Pick to the new song; bio updated; share the link. |
| First week | Watch sources and cities; post clips from the song every day. |
| After 4 weeks | Compare saves and repeat listeners with the previous release; decide the next one. |
If you keep your releases, links and press in one place, TONTRIA for artists puts the smart link, the EPK and the release plan together, and Clips makes the visuals for each step.