Building anticipation ahead of a new album release is one of the most important ways for artists to ensure its success. But in today’s music landscape, gaining prerelease momentum across multiple platforms that are often disconnected from where streaming actually happens is exhausting and inefficient. That’s where we come in. Spotify for Artists arms you with powerful tools to unleash your release’s full potential, reach a global audience, and deepen connections with fans before your music is released.
After having tested Countdown Pages with a select group of artists over the last year, we’re excited to announce that starting today, we’re expanding this feature to all eligible artists.
Countdown Pages is the ultimate prerelease destination where fans can presave an artist’s upcoming album, preview the track list, watch Clips, purchase merch, and see the timer count down to the release moment—all on Spotify. All artists with at least 5,000 active listeners in the 28 last days will now be able to create their own Countdown Pages to build hype for an upcoming album and ultimately drive streams once the album is released.
Listeners can find Countdown Pages across the Spotify app, including in the artist profile, Now Playing view, Search, and Home. Plus, once an artist’s new album drops, Spotify sends a push notification to all presavers and adds it straight to their libraries.
“The lead-up to an album’s release is arguably the most important time during a project’s life cycle. With this in mind, we took a step back as a company to come up with ways that we can help artists build momentum with fans during this period and elevate the album as an artistic statement,” said Sam Duboff, Global Head of Spotify for Artists, Marketing & Policy at Spotify. “The prerelease moment can often be disjointed across many different platforms; through the powerful tools offered in Spotify for Artists and our upcoming expansion of Countdown Pages to hundreds of thousands of artists, Spotify is focused on becoming the best home for artists and labels to release and promote their new music.”
Artists like Taylor Swift, Anitta, KAYTRANADA, Billie Eilish, Peso Pluma, Dua Lipa, Khruangbin, Charli xcx, Maggie Rogers, Whethan, Clairo, John Summit, and hundreds of others have already used Countdown Pages—in fact, earlier this year, Taylor Swift’s THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT became the most presaved album Countdown Page in Spotify history! We’ve seen impactful results for artists and their teams that include multiple benefits . . .
Fans are presaving albums
More than 80% of Spotify presaves happen the week an album is announced and during the week leading up to its release. This is also when we typically see strong social promotion from artists’ sharing their Countdown Pages with fans directly. For example, pop superstar Meghan Trainor uploaded a snippet of the “To the Moon” music video to her Countdown Page before sharing on social media, which helped drive additional presaves.
“Adding Clips to my Countdown Page has been a game changer,” Meghan said. “It gave me the chance to promote my single ‘To the Moon’ and provided fans a look into the creative world of my album Timeless ahead of its release. It’s like a hub for my album to make everything so much more convenient!”
Presaving leads to increased streams
On average, nearly 70% of users who presave an album stream it in the week following its release. And with the ability to reveal additional details about their upcoming albums, artists like country star Conner Smith have used Countdown Pages to keep fans engaged as release day nears.
“One thing I love about the Countdown Page on Spotify is being able to tease your track list,” Conner said. “Fans see what they’re going to get with the record. The Countdown Page just kind of puts it all in one place and makes it simple for fans to kind of see and understand.”
Clips help drive engagement
In a study of more than 500 artists with Countdown Pages, artists who uploaded Clips to their Countdown Pages averaged twice as many presaves as artists who didn’t.
“We used Clips to share studio footage of us recording the album and the album trailer video, which helped drive presaves on the Countdown Page and excitement for the record,” alt rock band Wallows said.
With the expansion of Countdown Pages, Spotify continues to invest in new tools designed to amplify the release moment and give each release its best chance at breaking through while helping artists build their fan bases on Spotify.
For artists who want to use features like Countdown Pages, Clips, Canvas, Campaign Kit, and more to promote their new music, Spotify for Artists’ recently launched New Release Guide offers a comprehensive resource that will guide them on their journeys.
