Tag: creativity

Spotify at Cannes Lions 2025: The Week’s Unmissable Highlights, Star Power, and More

June 24, 2025

Last week, Spotify returned to the Croisette for our 11th year at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity—bringing together artists, creators, brands, and fans for three days of inspiring conversations, unforgettable performances, and bold ideas at Spotify Beach.

Spotify’s Cannes Lions highlights

This year, Spotify was recognized across several categories at Cannes Lions, reflecting our commitment to creativity and innovation. Highlights include:

    • Grand Prix Lion for Innovation for the Sounds Right campaign in partnership with United Nations and AKQA.
    • Gold Lion for Design-Driven Effectiveness for the Spreadbeats campaign in partnership with FCB New York.
    • Silver Lion for Digital Design for Spreadbeats in partnership with FCB New York.
    • Bronze Lion in Corporate Purpose & Social Responsibility for the Sounds Right campaign in partnership with United Nations and AKQA.
    • Shortlisted for Excellence in Craft for the Do You Speak Anitta? campaign.
    • Shortlisted for Consumer Services/Business to Business and Innovation in Branded Content & Social Behavior for Spreadbeats.
    • Shortlisted for Fan Engagement & Community Building for the Singing in Your Inglish campaign.
    • Shortlisted for Rebrand/Refresh of an Existing Brand for Spotify Italy’s Bloombeats in partnership with Dentsu Creative. 
    • Shortlisted for Design for Behavioural Change for Spotify Japan’s Pride Code in partnership with TBWA\HAKUHODO.

Spotify Beach in action

From exclusive panels and a star-studded soirée to exceptional musical moments, here’s a look back at the most memorable scenes from Spotify’s week in the South of France.

Monday, June 16

Spotify Beach kicked off with powerhouse programming featuring Paris Hilton, Louis Theroux, and Charlie Puth. Moderated by Spotify’s Global Head of Podcast Advertising & Business Development, Emma Vaughn, “Mic Check: In Conversation With Louis Theroux, featuring Paris Hilton” explored the power of storytelling across podcasts, documentaries, music, and memoirs. Paris reflected on using her podcast to highlight meaningful stories and connect with others:

“With my social [channels], I can showcase the more fun, glamorous, and playful side. But through my podcast, I can talk about things that are very meaningful to me […] and use my voice to be a voice for others.”

Puth joined Spotify’s Global Head of Business Marketing, Bridget Evans, for “Rhythm and ROI: Amplifying Music in Your Marketing Strategy,” sharing insights on how music drives brand storytelling—and even teasing a new Broadway project and his upcoming album.

The evening wrapped with Spotify’s annual soirée, where Puth performed fan favorites like “Attention” and “See You Again,” plus a surprise rendition of Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me.” Guests included Antoni Porowski, Winnie Harlow, Kyle Kuzma, Bill Nye, Dylan Efron, Rachel Lindsay, Jake Shane, Bowen Yang, and Matt Rogers.

Take Your Spotify Playlists to the Next Level With Custom Cover Art

October 22, 2024

At Spotify, we know our users like to flex their creativity. We’ve seen this come to life across the more than 8 billion playlists listeners have created to soundtrack their musical moods, milestones, and every moment in between. Now we’re giving music fans the power to design and customize their own playlist cover art so their playlists can always look as good as they sound.

Rolling out in beta on the Spotify mobile app today, the new feature offers both Free and Premium users the ability to create their own cover art with unique images, colors and text effects, graphic elements, and more, allowing them to make their music playlists more unique and personalized than ever before.

Creating cover art on Spotify

All you need is a mobile device to access and use this feature. Whether you’re on iOS or Android, head to the Spotify mobile app (make sure it’s up to date) and select a playlist that you personally created or create a new one.

  • Tap the three-dot menu on the playlist page and then select “Create cover art” within the menu options.
  • From there, you can upload an original photo of your own and add or update a variety of elements, including:
  • Once complete, your playlist will be updated with your new cover art, and you can share your creation directly with friends or on social media platforms.

Pro tip: You can only save one custom cover art per playlist at a time, and each new cover you create will override the previous one for that specific playlist. If you’d like to create multiple covers for a playlist, make a copy of the playlist first. The easiest way to do that is to open the playlist you wish to copy, tap the three-dot menu, select “Add to other playlist,” and then tap “New playlist” to create your copy.

With the feature currently available in beta to users in English in 65 markets, we’re excited for fans to personalize their music playlists like never before. We’ll keep innovating and expanding the tool, so stay tuned for what’s to come.

Get inspired by the experts

As part of the launch, we’ve partnered with music artists, visual creators, and artists behind some of the world’s most iconic album art to empower listeners to unlock a new level of creativity and individuality. Each used the new feature to create unique cover art for one of their playlists on Spotify.

Music artists include Clairo, Jamie xx, and Arlo Parks. On the visual creator front, we’ve tapped Pablo Rochat, Jesse Nyberg, Vita Kari, and Elliot Ulm. Finally, our album artwork experts include creative director Imogene Strauss; Adrian Hernandez, the creator of Ugly Primo and designer of Un Verano Sin Ti by Bad Bunny; and Cey Adams, who has designed albums and logos for The Notorious B.I.G., Beastie Boys, and JAY-Z.