How to get verified on Spotify

Getting verified on Spotify now means one of two badges. Registered Artist is the old blue Verified Artist check, renamed on Jan 28, 2026, and you get it by claiming your profile in Spotify for Artists. Verified by Spotify is a separate light green check that launched Apr 30, 2026. You can’t apply for it. Spotify reviews profiles on its own against published criteria, including at least 10K monthly active listeners over 3 consecutive months and 1K followers. This covers Spotify’s help pages as of Sep 24, 2026.

Registered Artist: the old blue check, renamed

Registered Artist is the label Spotify shows on an artist profile that’s claimed and actively managed in Spotify for Artists. It replaced the blue Verified Artist checkmark on Jan 28, 2026, and it appears in the About section of the profile. The meaning didn’t change, only the name: the blue check always stood for a claimed profile, and Spotify says the word “verified” had come to suggest more than that. The switch doesn’t affect visibility, discovery, royalties or access to Spotify for Artists tools. Any artist with music on Spotify can get the label, because it depends on claiming the profile, not on a number of listeners.

All of that is in Spotify’s note on the verification checkmark. DistroKid got enough questions about it to write its own help page, which says the same thing and points back to Spotify.

So if your blue check disappeared at the end of January, your account wasn’t flagged and your songs weren’t hidden. Open your profile, tap About, and the label is sitting there. If you never had the check at all, your profile probably isn’t claimed yet, and that’s a quick fix.

Getting the label and claiming your profile are the same job, and there are two ways to do it.

How to get the Registered Artist label

You get the Registered Artist label by claiming your artist profile in Spotify for Artists, which takes one request after a distributor has delivered your music. If a distributor Spotify marks as preferred delivered it, you get access automatically when you submit the request. Otherwise you submit a claim with links to your website or social accounts, and Spotify reviews it by hand, which can take a few days. Before your first release is live, you can contact Spotify with your artist link and the release’s UPC or EAN. Only one request can be active per profile at a time. Spotify for Artists is free to join.

The routes are on Spotify’s page about getting access, and the get started page confirms it’s free. Our guide to posting music on Spotify walks through the whole claim, including the timing before a first release.

Which route you’re on depends on who delivered your music:

• A preferred distributor. On Sep 24, 2026, Spotify’s provider directory marked DistroKid, TuneCore and CD Baby as preferred. On DistroKid, the request starts under Features, then Special Access, then Spotify for Artists, per DistroKid’s Spotify page.
• Any other distributor. Use the claim form and add links that prove you’re you: your website, Instagram, YouTube. Then wait for the manual review.
• Someone else already claimed it. A manager, a label or an old bandmate got there first. You can’t file a second request or ask to join an existing team. Ask whoever holds Admin access to invite you.

Still picking a distributor? The best music distribution services roundup compares them, and preferred status is worth weighing if you want to skip the wait.

That label is the one you can ask for. The other badge works the opposite way.

Verified by Spotify: the green check

Verified by Spotify is a badge, a light green checkmark next to the words “Verified by Spotify”, that Spotify gives to artist profiles it has reviewed against its own criteria. Spotify launched it on Apr 30, 2026, and it shows on artist profiles and next to artist names in search. The criteria fall into three groups: sustained listener activity, compliance with Spotify’s platform rules, and profile authenticity. The published numbers are at least 10K monthly active listeners over a consecutive 3 month period and at least 1K followers. Spotify said that at launch, more than 99% of the artists listeners actively search for would be verified.

The launch details are in Spotify’s announcement, and the criteria are on Spotify’s Verified by Spotify help page. Here’s what each group asks for, in plain words:

• Sustained listener activity. The 10K monthly active listeners for 3 months in a row and the 1K followers. Spotify says it may also consider artists below those numbers who’ve made important contributions to music culture and history, or who are building cultural momentum.
• Platform compliance. No repeated spam, impersonation or other breaks of Spotify’s platform policies. If a verified artist is caught later, Spotify says it can remove the badge.
• Profile authenticity. Nothing deceptive in your bio, a catalog that’s mostly music (not noise, spoken word, a brand, a label or an aggregator), and public markers like linked social accounts, concert dates and merch.

Two details matter more than they look. First, Spotify introduces each list with “such as”, so these are examples, not a complete checklist, and Spotify doesn’t say how it weighs them. Second, the number is monthly active listeners, not monthly listeners. Active listeners are the people who chose your music themselves, and our monthly listeners explainer shows where to find the split. An artist with 30K monthly listeners from one big playlist can still sit under 10K active.

AI is the other rule. Profiles that appear to mainly represent AI-generated or AI persona artists currently aren’t eligible, though artists who use AI tools responsibly can be. The AI music distribution guide covers Spotify’s other AI rules.

Hitting the numbers doesn’t put a form in front of you, though.

Can you apply for Verified by Spotify?

No. Spotify doesn’t offer an application or request form for Verified by Spotify. Its help page says reviews happen on a rolling basis, that meeting the criteria doesn’t guarantee immediate approval, and that an artist who hasn’t got the badge yet may still receive it later. Verified artists get a notification in Spotify for Artists, and the badge then appears on the profile and in search. Spotify’s help page doesn’t give a review timeline or an appeal route, and neither Spotify page says the badge changes royalties or how often your music is recommended. Spotify can remove the badge if an artist later breaks its rules.

That’s everything Spotify publishes on the process, straight from the Verified by Spotify help page. If you’re over the numbers and still don’t have it, there’s no support ticket that speeds it up. Nobody outside Spotify knows the order it’s working through.

What you can control is the authenticity group:

• Social links. Spotify’s help page on social links says to log in at artists.spotify.com, open View Profile, then About. You can add Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok, Wikipedia and WhatsApp channel links.
• Concerts. List your shows with one of Spotify’s ticketing partners. Spotify imports them automatically, usually within 24 hours.
• Merch. If you sell merch, connect a Shopify store and publish a collection to your profile.
• Your bio. Keep it true. No borrowed credits, no fake label names.

These help anyway. Fans who land on your profile see where to follow you and where you’re playing, badge or no badge.

Knowing all that, the real question is where your time goes.

Which badge is worth your time

TheDebutRoom’s view: claim your profile now for the Registered Artist label, and treat Verified by Spotify as a result of real listeners, not a goal to chase. The claim is free, takes one request and gives you Spotify for Artists, where you pitch unreleased songs to Spotify’s editors and see who’s listening. Verified by Spotify can’t be requested, and its core requirement is 10K monthly active listeners held for three months, which only comes from people choosing your music. Chasing that number with paid streams works against you, because platform compliance is one of the criteria and Spotify can remove the badge.

Here’s the fear, and it’s a fair one. A fan opens a bigger artist’s page, sees a green check, then opens yours and finds none, and you worry it makes you look fake. It doesn’t. The Registered Artist label in your About section already tells anyone who looks that a real person runs the page, and the green check sits on artists people already search for by name. You’ll get there by being one of them.

The scam version of this shows up in DMs. Someone offers “Spotify verification” for a fee, or a bundle of streams to push you over 10K. Neither badge can be bought, and Spotify’s page on services that guarantee streams says artificial streams can get your royalties withheld and your music removed. That’s a bad trade for a check mark.

More on what Spotify for Artists can do is in the Spotify for Artists hub.

Get verified on Spotify, step by step

Getting verified on Spotify takes five steps: get a release delivered by a distributor, request access in Spotify for Artists, check the About section for the Registered Artist label, add links, concerts and merch to your profile, and grow your monthly active listeners while Spotify reviews profiles on its own. The first three steps earn Registered Artist, automatically with a preferred distributor or after a manual review of a few days otherwise. The last two work toward Verified by Spotify, which has no published timeline. You need a Spotify account, a release that’s live or delivered, and links to your website or social accounts.