What are Spotify’s leaked “superfan clubs”?
Image credit: Nalau Nobel
As Spotify celebrate a win over Apple they seem to reveal “superfan clubs” coming in the future, but what actually are they?
The European Union finally listened to Spotify’s appeals to change Apple’s App Store policy. Their ruling prevents Apple from forcing a 30% cut of in-app purchases on Apple devices and a restriction on mentioning alternative payment destinations.
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) prevents “a large online platform” from being a “gatekeeper”. This means that where businesses are reliant on using other companies – as in the case of making an app publicly available through an app store – that the company must offer a fair practice to the businesses using them.
Spotify are celebrating, looking forward to bringing the ability for users to subscribe to Spotify in-app from March 7th in the EU. They’ll also allow Spotify users to buy audiobooks from the app on Apple devices. Spotify promise that this “means good things for artists, authors, and creators”.
Spotify wrote: “For years, even in our own app, Apple had these rules where we couldn’t tell you about offers, how much something costs, or even where or how to buy it. We know, pretty nuts.”
But there’s something else that they mention. They proudly announce that now they “will be able to communicate clearly with your in the Spotify app about new products for sale, promotional campaigns, superfan clubs, and upcoming events”. Wait, what was that bit about superfans?
They go on to say: “Thanks to the DMA we’re looking forward to a future of superfan clubs…” Whilst they don’t reveal exactly what their superfan clubs will be, we have seen the industry push a focus towards superfans recently. Universal Music Group (UMG) boss Lucian Grainge named “superfan experiences” as a focus for 2024.
UMG’s EVP, Michael Nash speaks on what these experiences could be, saying: “Everything for early access to forms of premium content, to digital collectibles to fan badging and gamification modification of the fan experience. Access to artists. Some platforms are in a position to deliver a physical product in association with a digital subscription.”
We are likely to see a larger push on connecting fans with artists on a deeper level in 2024. In 2023, Spotify gave merchandise a larger priority on their app to bolster artist’s revenue streams and bolster the ease with which fans can make purchases beyond their streaming subscription.