Spotify to reserve tour tickets for artist ‘superfans’ in support of live music

MusicSpotify to reserve tour tickets for artist ‘superfans’ in support of live musicThe streaming platform said it would reserve two tickets to a show near fans who were identified through their streams, shares, and other Spotify activity. Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00The Spotify headquarters building in New York.Eduardo Munoz Alvarez / VIEW press via Getty Images fileShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 21, 2026, 3:11 PM EDTBy Doha MadaniFor years, many concertgoers have voiced their frustration over how hard it is to get tickets to their favorite artists’ tours amid scalpers and soaring resale prices.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Now, Spotify says it’s launching a new program aimed at easing that problem for superfans of select artists.The streaming giant announced the launch of “Reserved,” which identifies an artist’s most engaged listeners and reserves two seats for them at a show.Spotify already offers presale access for fans of some top-streamed artists, but these tickets would be set aside for specific users rather than simply granting access to a presale queue.“We’ll identify real fans based on factors like streams, shares, and other Spotify activity, and will also monitor the activity of Premium users to ensure these are real human fans and not bots,” the platform said Thursday. Spotify says it it won’t be adding any fees for its platform and the identified users will have a full day to buy the seats reserved for them.If it sounds too good to be true, there are some restrictions. Fans have to be legal adults who use Spotify’s paid Premium service and the offers are for shows in their local area. It also won’t be a guarantee as they note there are “more superfans than there are seats available on a tour.” The system is fan-engagement model not dissimilar to one employed by Taylor Swift when she sold tickets to her 2018 “Reputation” stadium tour. At the time, Swift used the...