Stay Ahead: DSP & UGC Platforms Updates June 2025

June brought updates that make platforms more visual, more social, and more community-driven. From SoundCloud’s “Liked By” tags to TikTok’s Fan Club, this month’s rollouts give artists new ways to deepen relationships, boost visibility, and drive fan action.

Spotify

Spotify expanded its Create Cover Art feature to 63 new markets and 41 additional languages. Users can now customize playlist visuals with photos, text, gradients, and seasonal sticker packs—giving fans creative control and boosting playlist identity.

🔗 Spotify Cover Art Update

SoundCloud

SoundCloud launched Liked By Indicators, which show when people you follow—whether fans, friends, or artists—have liked a track. These tags appear in playlists, search, and more, adding peer validation to the discovery experience and nudging listeners toward music their circle is engaging with.

What to do next:

• Encourage your community (team, superfans, collaborators) to follow and like your releases.
• Share SoundCloud tips in newsletters to boost adoption of discovery tools.

🔗 SoundCloud Liked By Overview

YouTube

YouTube Music now supports lyric sharing, letting fans pick up to five lines from any song and generate shareable, stylized images featuring lyrics, artwork, and backgrounds. This mirrors features already popular on Spotify and Apple Music—and makes fan engagement more social.

What to do next:

• Make sure your lyric metadata is clean and delivered.
• Repost fan-created graphics as part of your campaign rollout.

TikTok

June saw the global launch of TikTok for Artists, a new self-serve hub offering analytics, pre-release tools, fan insights, and best practices for certified creators. Artists and teams can now track how their music performs across the platform and plan smarter content strategies.

At the same time, TikTok launched Fan Club, a new live stream feature that lets creators build exclusive spaces for loyal followers. Fans earn badges, access chat-only rooms, and complete daily missions to level up.

What to do next:

• Certify your TikTok Artist Account and explore insights for current tracks.
• Activate Fan Club for live content—use it to share demos, teasers, or host Q&As.

🔗 TikTok for Artists Overview

🔗 TikTok Fan Club Info

Apple Music

At WWDC, Apple announced a suite of updates coming later in 2025:

• AutoMix: automated mixing between songs, like a personal DJ
• Lyrics Translation & Pronunciation for multilingual singalongs
• Motion Art for the lock screen
• Music Pins to keep favorite content at the top of the Library
• Apple Music Sing Enhancements, including turning iPhones into karaoke mics

What to do next: - Prepare Dolby Atmos and lyric-rich versions of key tracks to stay competitive as Apple expands immersive and lyric features.

🔗 Apple WWDC Music Announcements

Deezer

Deezer became the first DSP to tag 100% AI-generated tracks. With 20,000 AI uploads per day—accounting for 18% of new content but less than 1% of streams—Deezer’s move aims to boost transparency and filter out fraud. 70% of AI-generated streams are reportedly fraudulent and now excluded from royalty calculations.

What to do next:

• Flag AI-generated content accurately when distributing.
• Stay informed as more platforms introduce similar compliance standards.
• Make sure you understand what’s allowed on UGC platforms like TikTok, Snap, and YouTube Content ID.

More on what content is allowed on UGC platforms

Meta (Facebook)

Meta launched Fan Challenges on Facebook, allowing artists and creators with over 100K followers to invite fans to participate in viral content activations, think dance routines, nostalgia prompts, or style challenges, all using your music from the Facebook Audio Library.

What to do next:

• Use Fan Challenges to mobilize fans before or after a release.
• Collaborate with creators to seed creative entries and amplify reach.

🔗 Facebook Fan Challenges Overview

Stay Ahead, Stay Informed

From playlist customization to social-powered discovery, June’s updates spotlight one clear theme: putting fans at the center of the experience. Whether through visual lyrics, remixable playlists, or deeper community features, platforms are giving artists more ways to build lasting relationships.

We’ll be back in July with more updates—and strategies to keep your catalog visible and your audience engaged.