Spotify Adds Hundreds More Songwriter Pages and ‘Written By’ Playlists

Back in February, Spotify announced the launch of new songwriter pages and “Written By” playlists to highlight the behind-the-scenes work of music’s biggest hitmakers, from Meghan Trainor to Missy Elliott and Justin Tranter. Now, the streamer says it is adding hundreds more of those pages and playlists.

The list of additional songwriters to be profiled spans the full genre spectrum, including icons like Miles Davis among contemporary writers like Wheezy Beats (Young Thug, Future, Drake), Shelly Peiken (Christina Aguilera, Bebe Rexha, Jessie J) and Alizzz (Piso 21, Rosalía). While the feature is still in beta, users can begin accessing songwriter pages by right-clicking on a track, tapping “Song Credits.” The names of songwriters with pages will be clickable.

In recent years, Spotify has been taking steps to support songwriters on the platform. Since Spotify began displaying song credits in 2018, head of songwriter and publishing relations Jules Parker says that the platform has seen a 60% increase in how often labels and distributors credit songwriters on their new releases.

“People know who an artist is. They don’t know who the writers are, necessarily,” Parker added in a new company blog post. “If we can help make those connections, we help people discover new music and open up potential career opportunities for the songwriter. It all ties back to our mission of helping creators live off their work.”

Spotify has been hosting songwriting camps (fun fact: 21 Savage’s “a lot” was written at one) and inviting songwriters to use its studios around the world free-of-charge, and has also launched Publishing Analytics. Parker is now heading up a new team across Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta and London which will focus on expanding the company’s support of songwriters and publishers globally.

While Spotify is promoting songwriters on its platform, behind-the-scenes, it is going against them in court in an appeal to royalty rates decided by the Copyright Royalty Board in 2018 that would increase rates for songwriters, publishers and performance rights organizations substantially from 10.5% to 15.1% through the end of 2022. Google, Pandora and Amazon also filed notices to appeal the royalty rate determination. A fourth hearing on the matter is scheduled for Jan. 5, 2021.