Spotify is introducing Artist Profile Protection (APP), an optional feature that gives artists more control over which releases appear on their Spotify artist page. This is an opt-in feature in Spotify for Artists that helps prevent unauthorized or incorrectly attributed releases from appearing on your artist page, which can happen if several artists use the same artist name in Spotify.
When APP is enabled, newly delivered releases from most distributors that do not include a pre-approval key will need to be reviewed before they appear on your profile, contribute to your stats, or show up in Spotify's recommendations.
If you want your release to be automatically pre-approved on Spotify, you can provide your pre-approval key during the DistroKid upload process.
How Does Artist Profile Protection Work?
When an artist opts into APP through Spotify for Artists, Spotify provides two ways to approve releases before they go live on the artist's profile:
- Approvals Tab: A tab inside Spotify for Artists where artists can manually review, approve, or decline incoming releases. Releases that are not acted on by the release date will not be listed on the profile.
- Pre-Approval Key: A unique code generated in Spotify for Artists that can be included in a release's delivery metadata for automatic pre-approval. This means the release won't need manual review.
Please note that APP is entirely optional and only affects newly delivered releases. It will not impact your existing catalog on Spotify.
If you have Artist Profile Protection enabled but do not include your Artist Key during upload, your release will be sent to the Approvals Tab in Spotify for Artists. You or a member of your team will need to manually approve it before it can appear on your profile – you will be notified by Spotify when a release enters your Approvals Tab for review, or when a release has been approved for a main artist.
How to Add Your Spotify Artist Key During Upload on DistroKid
If you have enabled Artist Profile Protection and want your release to be automatically pre-approved on Spotify for all associated artists, you can provide Artist Keys during the DistroKid upload process. This prevents your release from being held for manual review in Spotify for Artists.
First Step: Get Your Artist Key from Spotify for Artists
- Log in to Spotify for Artists at artists.spotify.com.
- Navigate to Artist Profile Protection (found in your account settings or the dedicated APP page).
- Locate your artist in the list and click "Show key" next to your name to reveal your unique Artist Key (e.g., XY-DW4-JV9-YE48-BE).
- Copy the key to use during your DistroKid upload.
If you'd like to also provide artist keys for additional artists on the release (like collaborators or featured artists), you can ask them for their APP Artist Key ahead of time and have all keys ready before you upload.
Second Step: Enter The Artist Key(s) When You Upload
To enter artist keys for yourself or additional artists on the release, start a new upload on DistroKid as you normally would.
Then for the primary artist on the release:
- When you reach the "Artist already in Spotify?" section, look for the "Spotify Profile Protection" pre-approval key field.
- Paste your pre-approval key into this field.
For additional artists:
- Scroll down to the “Artist mapping” section and look for the "Spotify Profile Protection" pre-approval key field.
- Paste the additional artist pre-approval key into the appropriate field for the artist.
Once DistroKid delivers the release to Spotify with the key(s) included in the metadata, Spotify will automatically pre-approve the release. It will then be listed on the appropriate artist profiles following standard processing times.
Please note that if additional artists have Artist Profile Protection enabled on their Spotify accounts and you do not provide the Artist Key at the time of upload, the release will need to be approved by those artists in Spotify for Artists before the release will show on their page.
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