How to Claim and Verify Your Spotify Artist Profile

What claiming your profile actually does

When your music goes live on Spotify through a distributor, Spotify automatically generates an artist profile for you. That profile exists whether or not you have ever logged in. Claiming it means requesting access through Spotify for Artists, Spotify's dashboard for artists and their teams, and being approved to manage it.

Once you have access, three things change. First, you control the public presentation of your page: the profile image, the header image, the biography, and the artist pick that appears at the top of your page. Second, you gain access to your data: monthly listeners, stream counts, the cities and playlists driving your plays, save rates, and the discovery sources that surface your music. Third, you can take actions reserved for the profile owner, such as pitching unreleased songs to Spotify's editorial playlist team.

Without claiming the profile, none of that is available to you. Your music plays and earns royalties through your distributor regardless, but you have no control over the page and no visibility into the data behind it.

How to claim your Spotify for Artists profile

There are two routes to access, and which one applies depends on how your music was distributed.

The direct route: go to Spotify for Artists, sign in or create an account, search for your artist name, and request access to the profile. Spotify will verify that you are connected to the artist, sometimes by asking you to confirm details or to verify through your social accounts, and then approve access. As Spotify's artist support documentation describes, this is the standard path for an artist requesting access to their own profile.

The distributor or label route: if your music was delivered by a distributor (DistroKid, TuneCore, CD Baby) or a label, that party can grant you access to the profile from their side. Many distributors include a one-click path to claim your Spotify for Artists profile during or after the release process.

Either way, the prerequisite is that your music is already live on Spotify. There is no profile to claim until at least one release has been delivered and processed.

The terminology change: Verified Artist became Registered Artist

For years, a claimed and managed Spotify profile was labeled a Verified Artist profile, and it carried a small blue check mark indicating verified status. This caused persistent confusion, because the word verified implied that Spotify had endorsed the artist or conferred some special status, when in fact it only meant the profile had been claimed and was being managed through Spotify for Artists.

In early 2026, Spotify renamed this status. As described in Spotify's support documentation on the transition, the status formerly called Verified Artist became Registered Artist, with the rollout beginning January 28, 2026. The intent was to make the label accurately describe what it represents: a profile that is registered, claimed, and managed by the artist or their team, with no implication of endorsement.

The functionality did not change. The same access, the same data, the same controls. Only the name on the status changed, from verified to registered, to stop the word from over-promising.

The separate addition: the Verified by Spotify badge

Then, on April 30, 2026, Spotify introduced something genuinely new and easy to confuse with the renamed status: the Verified by Spotify badge, a green check mark that signals a profile is authentic.

This badge is not the same as the Registered Artist status. As Spotify explained in its newsroom announcement, the green check mark is an authenticity signal aimed at helping listeners distinguish genuine artists from impersonators and AI-generated personas. Where Registered Artist means simply that the profile is claimed and managed, Verified by Spotify means Spotify has reviewed the account and determined it represents an authentic artist.

Several features of the badge are worth understanding, drawn from Spotify's published criteria:

It is granted automatically. There is no application. Spotify reviews accounts on its own and applies the badge to those that meet its criteria.

The criteria center on authenticity signals: consistent listener engagement over time, good standing under Spotify's policies, and off-platform markers such as live performances, merchandise, and social media presence.

AI-generated personas do not qualify. The badge is explicitly intended to exclude accounts built as AI personas without authentic human-artist activity behind them.

A profile can be a Registered Artist (claimed) without yet having the green Verified by Spotify badge. The two are independent.

Don't conflate the two

The single most important thing to take away is that Registered Artist and Verified by Spotify are two different things.

Registered Artist is the status you get by claiming your profile through Spotify for Artists. Every serious artist should have this, because it unlocks control of the page and access to data. You get it by requesting access, not by meeting any engagement bar.

Verified by Spotify is the green authenticity badge Spotify grants automatically to accounts it has reviewed and judged authentic, based on engagement, policy standing, and off-platform presence. You do not apply for it, and you cannot get it for an AI persona. It reflects accumulated, genuine activity.

In practical terms, the action item is the same as it has always been: claim your Spotify for Artists profile so you are a Registered Artist with full control and data access. The green Verified by Spotify badge, if and when it arrives, follows from the authentic work of building a real listenership and presence over time.

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From The Stem Editorial. Platform features and terminology change frequently. Confirm the current claiming process and badge criteria in Spotify for Artists and Spotify's official support and newsroom documentation.