ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

Skip to main content

Shopify partners with Spotify to give musicians new options for merchandise sales

Share
TORONTO -

E-commerce behemoth Shopify Inc. is linking up with streaming giant Spotify in a partnership meant to give musicians more control over their virtual merchandise tables on the music platform.

The Ottawa-based company has struck an agreement with the popular subscription audio streaming service that introduces its digital retail tools onto Spotify's artist pages, allowing musicians to showcase a line of products alongside their latest singles and albums.

Shopify's services will be an alternative to Spotify's existing relationship with Merchbar, a more traditional online merchandise platform that specializes largely in selling vinyl records and branded clothing.

What Shopify will offer is an "all-in-one commerce platform" the company says will present musicians with an array of new options that give them greater control over how merchandise from their online store is created and displayed to fans.

They can use Shopify's various digital solutions to create new merchandise on the fly with "print-on-demand" options that can turn around items such as coffee mugs, wall art and shirts on short notice.

Those tools could prove especially useful as musicians look to capitalize on the TikTok era when one of their songs can generate massive interest on short notice.

Shopify says thousands of musicians already use its services on their websites and to sell items through other social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, but it believes the Spotify deal will introduce their subscription-based e-commerce services to a larger market of creators.

Merchandise sales have become a lucrative part of the music industry in recent years as album sales dwindled and the COVID-19 pandemic brought touring to a standstill.

Some musicians have used their names to launch products beyond their music. For instance, Pharrell recently introduced Humanrace, an all-gender skincare line while Drake sells luxury candles through his company Better World Fragrance House.

"For many fans, Spotify is the primary way they interact with an artists' music, and we are excited to give artists a new way to capitalize on that moment," Camille Hearst, head of Spotify for Artists, said Wednesday in a statement.

"We want to provide artists with as many resources as possible to help turn listeners into fans, fans into superfans and, ultimately, help artists earn more."

Musicians can link their Shopify online stores to their Spotify for Artists accounts, the digital hub where they manage data on their Spotify listeners. From there, they can choose which products to showcase.

Shopify says the option is available for artists across the globe but merchandise will only appear to listeners in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom for now.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 20, 2021.

CTVNews.ca ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.

The province's public security minister said he was "shocked" Thursday amid reports that a body believed to be that of a 14-year-old boy was found this week near a Hells Angels hideout near Quebec City.

An Ontario man says it is 'unfair' to pay a $1,500 insurance surcharge because his four-year-old SUV is at a higher risk of being stolen.

Emergency crews in northern Ontario found the bodies of four people inside a home where a fire broke out Thursday night.

The Montreal couple from Mexico and their three children facing deportation have received a temporary residence permit.

Local Spotlight

They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.

Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.

A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.

David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.

Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.