Musicians can add fundraising links on their Spotify profiles

With live shows canceled all across the globe due to the coronavirus pandemic, Spotify has added a new option for musicians using its platform to help with relief efforts.

The new fundraising links will offer up a variety of options for those who want to donate. It will allow musicians to let folks donate to either the musician/band themselves, to their crews, or to specific charities. The new option will be listed under a “Fundraising Picks” next to the standard “Artist Picks”, which normally highlights a musician’s songs.

As highlighted today by Engadget, it looks like this:

There are already a few different musicians using this new feature on the Spotify platform. That includes Marshmello, Tyrese Pope, Boy Scouts, and Benjamin Ingrosso. To actually send money the service uses either PayPal.me, GoFundMe, or Cash App. If you choose the Cash App, there’s more to be aware of:

Moreover, as part of a partnership the streaming giant has signed with Cash App, artists in the US and UK who link to their Cash App username and collect at least one donation of any size will get an additional $100 from a pool of $1 million — which works out to 10,000 musicians getting extra support.

The new fundraising option is only available on the mobile app for now, it seems. It’s not currently available on the desktop app.

Spotify has posted a dedicated page for best practices to help folks get started.

Given the urgency and impact of the COVID-19 crisis, we’re working as quickly as we can to develop this new product and get it out to as many artists as possible,” the company said. “However, we’ve never built a fundraising feature like this before. We consider this a first version that will evolve as we learn how to make it as helpful as possible for the music community.

The new fundraising area should be expanding to additional artists from here on out.

Apple itself is doing quite a bit to support artists during this public health crisis. We reported recently about the company’s support efforts with the $50 million Royalty Advance Fund, for instance. However, while that’s a huge help, it would be nice to see the company offering a fundraising area on artist profiles on Apple Music, too.