Spotify’s new RISE feature seems identical to Apple Music’s six month old Up Next

Spotify has taken its skill of breaking new artists and turned it into a full blown feature that launched on the weekend.

RISE is designed to “identify and break the next wave of music superstars” to its 60 million subscribers and 140 million users, according to the company.

At this stage it’s only available in the U.S., Canada and U.K.

The first four new acts are German pop singer Kim Petras; San Francisco born singer and guitarist Lauv (aka Ari Staprans Leff), Nashviille-based country pop singer Russell Dickerson; and Ohio hip hop artist Trippie Redd

The idea is to launch 16 new acts a year, adding four every few months.

They get promotion through Spotify a number of playlists, live shows and audio/vidual documentaries profiling the fact, as well as TV ads digital and social promotions, and seatbacks display on airlines like Delta.

“Spotify is committed to supporting the careers of artists of every level, including the next generation of global superstars,” Spotify’s Global Head of Creator ServicesTroy Carter – who selected the first artists for RISE.

Reps from Spotify Australia told TMN that while there’s no local launch date for RISE confirmed, we should “watch this space”.

RISE does come on the heels of Spotify offering data analytics for artists on streaming and demographics – however it looks very similar to Apple Music’s Up Next – also about breaking the next generation of stars, and which it launched in April.

Up Next has been showcasing an artist a month, also through a live performance, an audio/visual documentary on the artist, listings on various playlists and an interview with a Beats 1 presenter,

Among the acts it’s pushed have been Atlanta rapper 6LACK (pronounced Black), Nigerian singer songwriter Mr. Eazi, Canadian R&B / soul singer Daniel Caesar, and next, Billie Eilish an American pop singer signed to Interscope Records

Coincidence or not, but RISE’s arrival saw Apple Music move to file for two trademark applications for Up Next.

The first covers documentaries and entertainment services as gigs, music videos and multimedia platforms.

The second covers streaming and broadcasting in audio and visual formats.