Spotify features 5SOS & Guy Sebastian collaborators on new songwriter pages

Spotify has delivered a significant boost to the visibility of songwriters on its platform with the launch of a new Songwriter Pages beta feature.

A select number of songwriter pages have been created as part of the beta trial, including 5SOS collaborator Jake Sinclair (‘Woke Up In Japan’) and Guy Sebastian co-writer Tayla Parx (‘Set In Stone’).

Others to be included in the initial launch are Missy Elliott, Justin Tranter, Meghan Trainor, Fraser T Smith, Teddy Geiger and Ben Billions.

By heading to Spotify’s existing track credits feature, the new feature allows users to click a link on a songwriter and be redirected straight to their page.

Spotify and Apple Music have long been criticised for making it difficult to access liner credits, including songwriter information, so this is a significant move in the right direction.

As MBW points out, this latest change comes almost 12 months after Spotify appealed against a legal decision forcing the service to pay songwriters more in the US.

Now Spotify says its latest feature will help “fans, collaborators and industry partners dive deeper into some of the creators behind their favorite songs.

Since introducing song credits in 2018, the platform says has been a 60% increase in of often labels and distributors credit songwriters on their new releases.

Each songwriter page will include a list of the songs they have written, as well as their regular artist collaborators. There’ll also be a ‘Written By’ playlist for that songwriter, which listeners will be able to find through Spotify’s search feature.

“Spotify is always working to create new and better ways to promote music discovery — for artists, for songs and, increasingly, for songwriters,” said Spotify head of publishing & songwriter relations, Jules Parker.

“The launch of publicly visible songwriter credits on Spotify in 2018 was merely a first step. Together with the publishing industry, we’ve continued to evolve our data sharing and analytics efforts, and are proud to unveil this next iteration.

“Clicking on the credits in this pilot will take users to dedicated songwriter pages – providing a home for a songwriter’s work – and present listeners with ‘Written By’ playlists, a new series of playlists dedicated to songwriters.

“We’re excited to see how the world interacts with these new features, and look forward to enabling them for more and more songwriters.”

To get involved, Spotify is calling on songwriters to express their interest via this form, with more information available soon.