Spotify now has 172 million paid subscribers and 381 million monthly active users, an increase from last quarter.

Spotify continues to be the go-to music streaming service. Amazon Music and Apple Music trail far behind with paid subscribers. Spotify expects to have in excess of 400 million monthly active users, and over 177 million premium subscribers by the end of the year.

Because Spotify pays the majority of its revenue back to music labels, it couldn’t make a profit. But after years of losing money, the streaming music service is turning the corner, mainly because of its ad business.

Ownership of song catalogs gives the music labels big leverage in cutting deals with streaming companies. Spotify added content like podcasts that doesn’t that music labels don’t own which has drawn more listeners.

Spotify adds 4 new artists to its Fresh Finds Programs – Doss, Araya, TOLEDO, and Pom Pom Squad.

These artists will get extra support from Spotify including credits to use on its paid tools like ‘marquee’ ads, marketing support, and will be paired up with producers and songwriters to record Spotify Singles.

Toledo willbe paired with producer Gabe Wax, Pom Pom Squad will collaborate with producer Sarah Tudzin (aka Illuminati Hotties), Araya will work with producer Mindchatter, and Doss will work with songwriter Cecilia Gault. All four artists are based in New York.

Fresh Finds which combs through music blogs has always been my favorite Spotify Playlist. It’s the flagship playlist for the streaming company.

Since its launch, Fresh Finds has featured more than 25,000 artists, like Clairo, Omar Apollo, and 100 gecs. Spotify data shows that artists featured on Fresh Finds see their average monthly listeners increase by 108% in the 28 days following their addition to the playlist.

Spotify launched the Noteable Releases Playlist that will highlight the collaborative process of making music for established and emerging artists. The playlist will include releases from songwriters and producers around the world.

Today on the playlist are the usual suspects – Jack Antonoff, Zaytoven, Finneas O’Connell, Madi Yanofsky, and Autumn Rowe.

Finneas O’Connell thoughts on Noteable Releases:
“As a person who has always been curious who played what role behind the scenes on every project I’ve ever listened to and loved, I’m thrilled. Wish this had been around when I was 13, I would have eaten it up!”

Jack Antonoff shares:
“I think any way that people can start to understand more about how these records are made and what goes into them and the process is thrilling – I always used to dig up any information I could so the more readily available it is is cool.”

Look out for Open Up by Alice Pisano. You’ll like if you want an upbeat pop track. The track landed on Spotify’s New Music Friday Italy as wells as New Pop Revolution.

Alice released her debut EP Celebrate Life in 2019. The self titled track clocked over 3.6 million Spotify streams garnering support from BBC Introducing andmDutch Radio NPO Radio 2.

“Open Up is about how I wish love was: simple and uplifting. After always writing about heartbreak, I wanted this song to be a positive anthem, a reminder that love doesn’t have to be dramatic and gut-wrenching, that you can meet someone who accepts you for who you are, someone who feels like home” says Alice.

The London-based, Italian born artist also notes, “I wrote it three years ago and played it live – an acoustic version of it – for about a year before recording it. I always had very positive reactions from people at gigs, which made me realise it was special! Part of it was recorded in the studio in London, part of it remotely during lockdown”.

Stream the track on KOAR’s Indie Invaders Playlist.

The four artist that have joined Spotify’s Fresh Program Wallice, Unusual Demont, Julia Wolf and EKKSTACY — all have released singles.

Part 1” by Julia Wolf, produced by Jackson Foote,
“hey!” by Unusual Demont, produced by The Idiot (aka Kieran Watters),
f*ck everything!” by EKKSTACY (feat. The Drums), produced by Jonny Pierce of The Drums,
“Nothing Scares Me” by Wallice, produced by marinelli & Ariel Rechtshaid.

The Spotify Fresh Finds Playlist was launched in 2016 and features up-and-coming artists which used data from music blogs and tastemakers.

Now the playlist has expanded into an “artist program” that will help independent artists by providing education and resources as well as opportunities for collaboration.

Artists selected by Spotify will have access to one-on-one mentorship with members of Spotify and a personalized Masterclass to learn how to best use Spotify for Artists tools (like Canvas and Marquee). There will be collaboration opportunities with songwriters and producers and the artists and producers/songwriters will release an original Spotify Singles track.

The four artists that debuted on the first Fresh Finds program are Wallice, Unusual Demont, Julia Wolfand EKKSTACY— they all just met up this morning in Times Square to see themselves on the FreshFinds billboard.

Spotify is also rolling out new Fresh Finds playlists in the UK, Australia, Brazil, Spain, India, and more.