Spotify now lets you tip your favorite artists or donate to a charity

Spotify has introduced a new feature where artists can now add a fundraising link to their profiles, letting fans support them directly, or support a selected cause, including COVID-19 relief. Payments can be made through GoFundMe, PayPal and other options, with Spotify stating that it takes no money from the raised funds.

Along with helping artists offset lost revenues due to the pandemic, Spotify also encourages supporting efforts against coronavirus, with the available option for artists to enable donations towards a related charity or music organization.

In a blog post about the newly introduced Artist Fundraising Pick, Spotify also notes that it has donated to such organizations as MusiCares, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the World Health Organization. Along with that, the music streaming service has also established a $10 million matching fund through its Spotify COVID-19 Music Relief project.

Spotify points out that it's trying to get the new feature out to as many artists as possible, though the company has never build a feature like this, so evolving it may take some time.

This is an apt time to encourage the support of artists, many of whom rely almost exclusively on their income from live shows, as general income from sold albums or streamed music is significantly lower in comparison. With the quarantine and social distancing in effect for months, artists, among other workers and businesses have been suffering immense monetary losses.

Other tech companies and social media giants have also included similar features to what Spotify is doing, with Instagram recently also adding support for fundraising, in an effort to support small businesses using the app. Instagram's parent company Facebook has supported fundraising for a while now, and, in addition, partnered with the World Health Organization to launch a chatbot-like service on Facebook Messenger, that is meant to provide Messenger users with reliable, official COVID-19 information, together with tips on personal protection.