Connecting Shopify & Spotify – what we would find Swanky

As a team composed of multiple musical maestros, any talk of Shopify’s musical functionality sees the Swanky office burst into life (and song).

Recently, talk turned to the existing link between Shopify and Spotify (a bit of a tongue twister, we know!). Merchants can embed Spotify tracks and playlists on a Shopify store, creating a unique user experience for their customers.

This got us thinking. Imagine if this integration worked the other way round! Huge names in the music industry such as Lady Gaga, Foo Fighters and 2 Chainz use Shopify as their ecommerce instrument of choice, selling everything from digital downloads to merchandise.  What if they could integrate their store with Spotify to sell their merch via their artist profile pages?

Let’s take a look at the benefits of a potential sales integration between Shopify and Spotify, before exploring the current link between these two platforms in a bit more detail.

Selling merch on Spotify – how is it done now?

Selling merchandise is a simple yet effective way for artists to connect with listeners, expand their reach and ultimately increase their revenue.

In 2016, Spotify launched an exciting new integration with Merchbar, which enabled artists to sell their merchandise via their Spotify profile. This represented a promising opportunity for artists to sell direct to their listeners, and paved the way for new merch discovery experiences for fans.

Once merch has been listed on Merchbar, top products automatically display on an artist’s Spotify profile page, like so:

Clicking on an item takes you to the product page on the Merchbar site:

Selling on Spotify via Shopify – a possible new integration?

This got the musically-minded Swanky team thinking. There’s a growing number of musicians turning to Shopify to host their ecommerce stores, thanks to its flexibility, scalability and ease-of-management. What if these artists were able to connect their Shopify stores with their Spotify profiles to promote and sell their merch?

Much like with the current Merchbar integration, products from the artist’s Shopify store could be pulled through to Spotify, automatically displaying on their profile. Clicking on an item would take you directly to the artist’s Shopify store, like in the example below:

A super-Swanky sales integration

This rather cool sales integration would present an interesting opportunity for artists to link from their own ecommerce store to Spotify, rather than using another platform such as Merchbar. This could even encourage more musicians to consider Shopify for their online retail platform.

We caught up with Ben Homer, Swanky’s Head of Operations and budding musician, to see what he thinks this potential partnership could do for the music industry:

“Shopify is the ideal ecommerce solution for musicians. It’s the go-to platform for many bands and artists across the globe. Shopify makes it easy to set up and manage a flexible and engaging online store that showcases your personality and help grow your fan base.

If a musician already has a Shopify store and wants to start selling via their Spotify page, at the moment they need to create and manage a whole new sales channel on Spotify. If they were able to integrate their Shopify store to their Spotify page, however, this would be a game-changer!

It would make life much easier, with one thing less to manage. Musicians want to be able to make a living doing the thing that they love. They want to be free to focus on their music. Connecting Shopify and Spotify with a cool sales integration would enable them to do exactly that, by reducing the admin burden that currently comes with selling merch on Spotify.”

So, could this exciting integration between Shopify and Spotify ever come to fruition? You’ll have to watch this space!

In the meantime, have you considered jazzing up your Shopify store by embedding a Spotify playlist? Let’s take a look at how you can do this, along with some great benefits that come with offering musical functionality on your ecommerce store.

Embed a Spotify Play Button on your Shopify store

As we mentioned earlier, it’s currently possible to embed Spotify tracks and playlists on external sites, including a Shopify store. This is a useful feature for artists looking to promote their own music, or for brands looking to create a memorable browsing experience for their users.

Swanky’s very own Shopify Play Button!

Merchants can create Play Buttons for tracks, artists, albums or playlists. When a logged-in Spotify user clicks Play, music will play in the Spotify player. If a user isn’t logged into their Spotify account, a 30-second preview will be played before the user is prompted to login or sign up.

Playback is only triggered by a user clicking the Play Button, so there’s no need to worry about potentially annoying your customers with music that automatically starts playing when they land on the page in question!

Spotify Play Buttons are available in different themes and sizes. You should be able to add a Play Button wherever HTML lives on your Shopify store (think pages, blogs, product descriptions etc.).

Benefits of offering music functionality on your ecommerce store

Intrigued by the possibility of adding this musical functionality to your Shopify store? As well as being a cool feature that would help to differentiate your store from the competition, there are some great benefits that a Spotify integration could bring to your ecommerce site. Here are a few to consider:

Articulate your brand culture

Music can be a really effective cue to a brand’s image. A carefully curated playlist can be used to support and articulate your brand’s culture. The tracks and artists you feature can reflect your position as a retailer, telling the story of your brand.

If you have a bricks and mortar store that plays a particular style of background music, you could consider making these tracks available on your ecommerce store too. This would help you to build a strong and consistent store image, whilst reinforcing shoppers’ recognition of your brand’s unique personality.

A new channel to connect with customers

You can use music alongside other elements of your ecommerce store (such as photography, copy and styling) to really connect with your visitors. A playlist acts as a new and exciting channel through which you can build relationships with customers. For instance, embedding a Spotify Play Button on your blog is a great way of keeping your content engaging and encouraging users to explore more of your articles.

Improve overall user experience

Offering customers the chance to listen to music whilst browsing your store can improve their overall user experience. Audio can combine with other dynamic elements of your site to build a unique sensory experience. If customers have a positive experience, they are more likely to demonstrate loyalty to your brand, and will be more inclined to share their experience with others.

Importantly, the Spotify Play Button has to be consciously clicked for playback to begin. This is key if you’re considering embedding this type of functionality on your site, as it means that users aren’t automatically confronted with music that they might not want to listen to. This ensures a positive experience for all users.

Increase average session times

Another benefit of offering music on your ecommerce store is that it could help keep users on your site for longer, increasing the average session time. This facilitates increased engagement and encourages them to discover and potentially purchase more products.

Looking for ways to optimise your Shopify store? Get in touch with our friendly team of experts to find out how we can unlock your ecommerce potential!