Music streaming service Spotify has unleashed a host of new perks for Premium subscribers, including reserved ticketing for your favorite artists.
Spotify says the service now identifies an “artist’s most dedicated fans and holds two tickets just for them.” The company says it will let users purchase the tickets before they go on sale to the general public, without any additional fees. The company is initially partnering with LiveNation, but confirmed that it is seeking other partners.
“Eligibility is based on a number of factors like streams, shares and other Spotify activity, as well as natural listening behavior that helps us confirm these are real human fans and not bots,” a Spotify representative told CNET.
The representative said Spotify will select tickets using a preferred location in a user’s Live Events Feed, if set, or approximate location based on their IP address.
The streamer also announced a Personal Podcasts feature, “launching soon,” which lets you create your own private podcasts using prompts and other content, including PDFs. The episodes are then saved in your library for listening later.
The final two features include the forthcoming ability to subscribe to artists through exclusive memberships, which unlock “deeper performances,” and a standalone Studio desktop app that creates personalized audio, such as custom podcasts and playlists, based on your listening habits.
Spotify is the most popular music streaming service, with over 700 million users, and the new features add a point of difference among its music streaming competitors. Yet, Spotify has also recently added podcasts, audiobooks with read-along, AI DJs and so on, and it’s hard to imagine users taking advantage of all the features available for its $13 monthly service fee.
