Almost a year ago, Spotify announced a new beta feature that would allow artists to upload their music to the streaming service without the need for a record label or a third party service. While many independent acts have surely benefited from the musical freedom, Spotify has now announced the closure of the feature.
The beta program will be no more at the end this month, forcing independent artists to go back to using third-party services. "We’re working with our distribution partners to help make this transition as simple as possible for the artists who uploaded music through the beta," the official statement read. "At the end of this month, we’ll stop accepting any new uploads through Spotify for Artists, and artists will need to move their already released content to another provider."
The beta provided Spotify with information on how to better suit the needs of independent artists such as growing stronger relations with distribution partners and focusing on "developing tools" such as Spotify for Artists and playlist submission tools.
"Thank you to the artists who participated in our upload beta. We’re incredibly proud to have played a small part in the music they released. Spotify wouldn’t be what it is today without artists and labels who are willing to collaborate with us to build a better experience for creators and listeners," the statement concluded.