Say Hello to Fan Support: Artist Fundraising Pick Is Getting a New Name

When we launched Artist Fundraising Pick in April 2020 as a way for listeners to directly contribute to the personal causes and needs of artists, the entire music industry had been deeply impacted as live music was interrupted by the pandemic. But in the two years since, a lot has changed. Use of the feature has grown and evolved so much that it was time to change the name to better reflect how it’s being used now. Following the announcement by Head of Spotify for Artists Camille Hearst in our recent Masterclass video, Artist Fundraising Pick is now officially called Fan Support.

More than 200,000 artists currently have an Artist Fundraising Pick link on their profile, and about 90% of those artists are using the feature to collect fans’ monetary support directly. The other 10% are using Artist Fundraising Picks to raise money on behalf of charitable causes like COVID-19 relief, support for Ukraine, and more.

Starting today, you’ll see current Artist Fundraising Picks re-labeled as Fan Support in Spotify and Spotify for Artists. You can still log into Spotify for Artists, go to your profile, and add or change a Fan Support link at any time. Visit our Best Practices guide for more information on how it works with each fundraising platform partner.

With Fan Support, fans have an opportunity to directly support the artists they love and also get behind causes that artists care about most, through partners including Cash App, GoFundMe, PayPal.me, and Mercado Pago. At the same time, artists have the flexibility and freedom to respond to the world around them, welcoming fan tips one week and rallying them around a global cause the next. (All payments take place on the third-party fundraising platforms, and Spotify takes no cut of the transaction.)

Fan Support is part of Spotify for Artists’ growing portfolio of monetization tools, giving artists and fans more options when it comes to how they connect and engage on Spotify — whether through streaming royalties, merch, ticketing, live interaction, or direct support.

One group using Fan Support is Emotional Oranges: "Having recently become independent artists [during the pandemic], being able to access this tool gives us the opportunity to allow fans to help fund unique experiences or projects that otherwise wouldn't be financially possible for us.”

“The fight for abortion rights is something I hold very close to my heart,” says Salem Ilese, who is another of the many artists using Fan Support. “Knowing that donations can be easily made via my Spotify profile and that they will go to The Center for Reproductive Rights, which is the organization on the frontlines of the legal fight to protect our individual liberties, makes me overjoyed!”

“Artists and their fan communities have demonstrated the power of coming together to help those in need from helping musicians get back on their feet after band equipment was stolen to rallying around causes they care about such as supporting the AAPI community or protecting the environment,” says Kelly Galvin, GoFundMe’s Global Head of Partnerships and Philanthropy. “Artists and fans have the real opportunity to come together for collective change and we already see that happening on GoFundMe."

To date, fans have clicked on Fan Support links more than 50 million times. That's a whole lotta love, and with a name that has evolved to match its growth, we hope Fan Support can spread that love even further.