The company announced the first four artists in the RISE program are Kim Petras (pop), Lauv (pop/rock), Russell Dickerson (country) and Trippie Red (hip hop). Spotify is committed to promoting their RISE artists on and off the service, including RISE playlists and audio and video content that goes into each artist's story. Delta Airlines will also be promoting RISE artists on aircraft seatbacks through the Delta Artist Spotlight program.

It appears as though these artists do have record deals -- Russell Dickerson, for example, is signed with Triple Tigers/Sony, so it appears that Spotify isn't interested in getting into the record label business. Instead, they appear to have identified up-and-coming artists -- some of whom have already have some success on Spotify, with viral singles -- with an aim to turn them into the next global superstars.