Songwriters tend to stay behind the scenes avoiding the spotlight allowing the full spectrum to shine on the artist. That’s why writers are the most overlooked creative professionals in music. Spotify will shine the spotlight on the community of songwriters and has introduced the Songwriters Hub which allows listeners to follow their favorite songwriters. Spotify have added pages for songwriters including Sia, Ant Clemons, Bebe Rexha, Gregg Wattenberg, Noonie Bao, Ashley Gorley and Irving Berlin.
Songwriter Nija who worked with Ariana Grande on Positions says this: “Having a hub for songwriters is extremely important because people need to know who these people are who are helping create the soundtrack to our lives. Songwriters deserve to be praised for their contributions just as much as artists and producers. A lot of times we get the short end of the stick, so I’m glad that there’s a place where people can see who’s writing their favorite songs.”

Spotify will allow artists to promote their music for a cut in royalties. The feature will affect playlists, Spotify Artist Radio, and Autoplay, which plays similar music after a playlist has run out of tracks. The result is an algorithmic boost.

“Artists and labels can identify music that is a priority for them, and our system will add that signal to the algorithm that determines personalised listening sessions,” the company said.
“This allows our algorithms to account for what’s important to the artist – perhaps a song they are particularly excited about, an album anniversary they are celebrating, a viral cultural moment they are experiencing, or other factors they care about.”
“To ensure the tool is accessible to artists at any stage of their careers, it will not require any upfront budget,” Spotify says. “Instead, labels or rights holders agree to be paid a promotional recording royalty rate for streams in personalised listening sessions where we provided this service.”

Spotify has published weekly album charts. Which means you are up to date on a weekly basis of the most popular artists and tracks.

The Weekly Top 50 will look at the most popular albums and tracks in the world each week, Friday through Thursday, consisting of a US Weekly Album Chart, Global Weekly Album Chart, US Weekly Song Chart and Global Weekly Song Chart.
These new album charts are only going to be released on the @spotifycharts Twitter.
Also, Spotify added another cool feature that lets you search for songs by lyrics.

Spotify has launched a global RADAR hub on the platform which will contain playlists, new releases and exclusive content featuring RADAR artists. Spotify launched the artist program 6 months ago that highlights rising artists around the globe.
The folks at Spotify are touting Radar Artists as a huge success. The artists have collectively generated over 2 billion streams and 112 million listeners across 102 countries. They have cumulatively generated more than 8 million followers since the launch.
Spotify’s Andy Sloan-Vincent says the RADAR hub is designed to further the program’s mission to break local artists on a global scale. “What we’re starting to see — we’ve seen it with K-pop — [is that] fans aren’t necessarily listening to just the music of their home language anymore,” he says. “They’re starting to listen to artists from completely different geographies, speaking different languages.”

Watch out for Tarn PK. He recently released the track Daylight. It’s a worth a listen and has The Weeknd vibe. The 19 year old singer songwriter first made waves with the track Talk To You that landed on a string of playlists including Spotify’s UK and US New Music Friday as well as New Pop Sounds and Fresh Finds. Give it a stream on our Indie Invaders playlists.