Spotify Announces First 4 Artists for RISE, its New Emerging Artists Program

The streaming service wars remain a heated conflict, but Spotify has made several moves to differentiate itself from the pack. Its newest initiative focuses on emerging artists, aptly called RISE. RISE aims to highlight up-and-coming artists through playlists that include both their music and the music that inspires them, ad appearances and spots on Spotify’s top playlists.

The first four artists featured in RISE are as follows: R&B-pop singer/songwriter Lauv,  pop singer/songwriter Kim Petras, country artist Russell Dickerson and rapper Trippie Redd.

“We have the biggest distribution system in the world for streaming music so why not use that to help young artists?” Troy Carter, Spotify’s global head of creator services, told Billboard. While the four artists picked for RISE are independent, Carter told Billboard that the program could include artists on major labels in the future. He also told Billboard that RISE will not be Spotify’s answer to a record label and that the service will not own any of the artists’ copyright or take any cut from the artists’ touring fees and merchandise.

Carter also told Billboard that RISE is expected to support 16 artists each year, with new artists being added to the roster every few months. “We just want to be a place that artists will go and feel at home,” Carter said to Billboard. “What MTV was. What BET was. What HOT 97 was. We want you to have the number one record on iTunes.”