Music is evolving, and so are the ways users discover and connect with artists. In the AI era, it’s more important than ever to be able to trust the authenticity of the music we listen to. To tackle this, Spotify, is rolling out Verified by Spotify badge, as well as additional details about artists’ activity (in beta) on its platform.
This initiative will provide users with more context about artists and their music, so they can build more meaningful connections with them. Users will begin seeing the new badge appear on artist profiles and next to artist names in search over the coming weeks. It will be marked by “Verified by Spotify” text and a light green checkmark icon.
These updates build on recent song-level context features like SongDNA, expanded song credits, About the Song, and AI credits, all designed to give users more insight and transparency into the music and artists they are discovering.
Verified by Spotify: a clearer signal on artist profiles
Artist profiles are a key place to learn more about music and artists. The new Verified by Spotify badge shows an artist profile has been reviewed and meets Spotify’s criteria for authenticity and trust. And with Artist Profile Protection (currently in beta), artists now have greater control over what appears on their profile, which helps to ensure the music users see is coming from them.
Artists who receive this badge have:
-
- Consistent listener activity and engagement over time: Review on artist profiles that listeners are actively and intentionally seeking out over a sustained period of time, not just those experiencing one-time spikes in engagement. These criteria also make it feasible to conduct thorough reviews across millions of artist profiles.
- Good standing with Spotify’s platform policies: This means the artist and their content comply with the platform rules.
- Signals of a real artist represented in the profile: Spotify look’s for an identifiable artist presence both on and off-platform, like concert dates, merch, and linked social accounts on their artist profile. At launch, profiles that appear to primarily represent AI-generated or AI-persona artists are not eligible for verification.
Spotify will pair these standards with human review and judgment to identify real artists behaving in good-faith, not just filtering out bad actors, giving users a more reliable signal of the authentic artistry behind the music.
Because Spotify is home to millions of uploaders and artist profiles, reviews and verification will happen on an ongoing basis to ensure accuracy and consistency. Not seeing the badge on an artist profile doesn’t mean they won’t receive it in the future.
At launch, Spotify has ensured that more than 99 per cent of the artists Spotify listeners actively search for will be verified, representing hundreds of thousands of artists — the majority independent — spanning genres, career stages, and geographies. This means prioritising artists with active fan interest, or who have made important contributions to music culture and history, rather than functional music creators and content farms whose content is primarily designed for passive or background listening.
Spotify is also introducing a new section (in beta) across all artist profiles — regardless of Verified by Spotify status — that highlights key artist details like career milestones, release activity, and touring activity, helping users better understand and connect with the artist beyond the music.
Users will begin seeing this in the About section on mobile across artist profiles in the coming weeks, as well as by clicking “Verified by Spotify” in the banner for verified artists.
