Merch has been part of Spotify for a while now, but there’s a strong sense of the company increasing its efforts to help artists use that feature.
Its deal with e-commerce firm Shopify and the inclusion of merch in its Wrapped 2021 mailouts and more recently in its ‘Blend’ playlist feature were key examples.
Now it has launched a new landing page on its website designed to get artists up and running with merch on Spotify. Shopify looms large in the how-tos and other guides linked to from the page, and there’s also the first in a planned series of videos focusing on artists and their merch strategies, starting with independent artist Mehro.
There’s also an endorsement from independent firm Dirty Hit, noting that it sold more than 1,000 vinyl albums for Rina Sawayama in less than two hours via a Spotify ‘Fans First’ mailout.
Yes, in this context, vinyl albums are merch. Welcome to 2022.