Spotify ‘Exploring Variety Of Ways To Help Those Around The World’ During Global Pandemic

As the live music industry braces for an uncertain future, the streaming side continues to run relatively smoothly despite a recent trend report showing declining streams in top 200 popular songs on Spotify in Italy due to self-isolation.

Naturally consumer behavior around streaming will change with this global shift – exploring new forms of content to cure boredom, find inspiration and even seeking solidarity.

Musicians have been hit particularly hard, many losing touring, merchandise, and licensing revenues due to cancellations across the board, and some have taken to a petition calling on Spotify to triple royalty rates permanently and make a half-a-million dollar donation to a California-based charity to offset losses.

A spokesperson from Spotify told Forbes the following today:

“Like so many, we at Spotify have watched this situation unfold and we’ve been exploring a variety of ways to help those around the world navigate the challenges posed by COVID-19,” a spokesperson from Spotify told Forbes today.

Spotify has always been a place for inspiration, entertainment and education. Our goal is to continue to be all those things, but during these uncertain times, we believe we also have the added responsibility to ensure our users are getting the most up-to-date public health information.

To accomplish this on a global scale, we’ve activated our platform and made a portion of our ad inventory available for governments and nonprofits to share that information with users around the world. We are also providing direct financial support for these efforts through the CDC Foundation Emergency Response Fund and COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for WHO. 

There’s no question this is also a challenging time for our creator community and we are working to assist them through MusiCares’ COVID-19 Relief Fund to provide much needed assistance. These efforts are only the beginning. We are actively exploring ways to further leverage the Spotify platform for good in the days and weeks ahead.”

While there is no direct response to the petition from Spotify, proactivity is reflected as a priority based on recent comments. Through a partnership with MusicCares, The Recording Academy affiliated non-profit which has been actively providing resources through a COVD-19 Relief Fund for qualifying musicians, Spotify will be providing and undisclosed amount of “much needed assistance” to ease some of the financial burden many are experiencing now.

Apple Music and iTunes have given prime digital real estate to a video from the White House Coronavirus Task Force in an effort to educate platform users.