Spotify’s app for artists gets a big revamp, adds real-time stats for listeners

Spotify this morning is rolling out an updated version of its app for artists, across both iOS and Android. The new app includes a refreshed design, as well as new analytics like real-time stats on how many people are playing artists' songs around the world, most notably. Educational materials are also for the first time available through the app's new Home tab.

Launched two years ago, the Spotify app already offers a way to see real-time listening stats for new releases for the first week they go live. Now it's expanding its listening stats so artists can see how many people are playing their songs right now.

It's also now easier to track important milestones in the revamped app, Spotify says - like when a song gets added to a playlist or the artist gains new followers.

From the Home tab, Spotify will offer more recommendations on how to best use its tools and promote its Co.Lab events.

Here, artists will be able to read articles, watch videos and presentations, get advice from successful artists, learn about product updates, and more.

The audience analytics and music sections have also gotten a visual refresh, designed to make it easier to see the latest stats related to who's listening, where, and what similar artists these fans like.

And in a much-needed addition, artists or their managers can now update the artist's profile in the app, including the ability to pick a new profile photo, rewrite the bio, update playlists and the Artist's Pick directly from the Artists page in the app.

For those who are managing multiple artists, it's now easier to switch between profiles.

The update to the Spotify for Artists app is one of the more significant to a arrive since the analytics dashboard moved to mobile back in 2017. And with the standout feature of real-time listening stats for listeners, the app is even more of a competitor to Apple's artist dashboard, which just exited beta last month with the addition of Shazam data.

Spotify says the new app is rolling out this week across both iOS and Android.

Correction, 9/24/19 10:20 AM ET: The app offers real-time stats of current listeners for all songs overall, but not for any song. This was unclear. We've since corrected. Sorry for the confusion.