Tag: Jeremy Erlich

How Spotify Brings FC Barcelona Players and Passionate Fans Together

June 20, 2023

CANNES, FRANCE - JUNE 19: (L to R) Bradford Ross, VP Global Sports & Entertainment Marketing and Partnerships at The Coca-Cola Company, Cesc Fàbregas, Pola Gomez, Benjamin Braun, Samsung Europe CMO and Jeremy Erlich, Spotify Global Head of Music participate in the Top Hits and Goal-Scoring Kicks: Fans, Football and Media session at Spotify Beach, during Cannes Lions on June 19, 2023 in Cannes, France. (Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Spotify)

For fans, the world of sports is more than what happens on the field or the outcome on the scoreboard. It’s about bringing people together. In this way, sports and music are similar—especially when it comes to the passion that fans have for each.

This week at Spotify Beach at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, Spotify’s Head of Music, Jeremy Erlich, hosted a conversation between former FC Barcelona player Cesc Fàbregas, freestyle footballer Pola Gomez, Coca Cola’s VP of Global Sports and Entertainment Marketing and Partnerships, Bradford Ross, and Samsung’s European CMO, Benjamin Braun. Together, they dove into the fan culture surrounding sports, music and the ways each brand has harnessed this passion. 

“About a year ago, we signed our partnership with FC Barcelona,” Jeremy said at the start of the conversation. “It’s been an amazing partnership. Together, we set out to bring the world of  Football and Music together. For us, it’s about how we can use FC Barcelona’s huge scale and fanbase to celebrate artists and grow our brand in places like India, Indonesia and Latin America. Football and sport are different from music, but they have the similarities of having very passionate fan bases and having very young fanbases.”

Cesc Fàbregas knows something about an active fanbase. He joined his first professional team, Arsenal, at age 16, coming off the World Cup tournament where he was voted the best player and goal scorer. “Even though we lost the final against Brazil, that’s the first time I started signing shirts and taking pictures with people.” A few years later, Cesc joined his home country’s Football Club Barcelona, and led the team to victory at the world championships at age 23. But he stays humble.

“I always say that in football, you never know everything,” said Cesc. “It’s one of those sports you can always grow, even when you’re 32, 35, 37, and everyone around me has helped me learn. Everyday, I’m thankful for that.” 

Pola Gomez also started playing football at a young age, thanks to her family’s love of the sport. But after sustaining injuries to both knees, she transitioned to football freestyle, where she interacts with most of her fans through social media. “I am on social media first for sharing my passion, sharing my tricks, but also to show off this incredible football freestyle universe. I love being close to my community, to share tips, but also to motivate people, especially girls trying out the sport of their dreams,” she said. 

Jeremy dove deeper into music and branding with each athlete, and how their sport brings fans together. Read on for some top moments from their conversation.

Cesc: It [The Spotify partnership with FC Barcelona] is another level. You see how big the club can be around the world. Everywhere you go, they know you. They know the players, they know the brand. Spotify has made a great choice in joining us.

Jeremy: As part of our Barcelona partnership, twice this past year for the Clásico, which is one of the most watched sports in the world, we replaced the Spotify jersey with an artist logo. We did Drake for the first Clásico, and then we did ROSALiA for the second. And let’s specifically talk about ROSALiA: She’s been a Barcelona fan her entire life. So the emotional connection when we offered her the opportunity to be on the jersey was, I think, one of the most enriching things we’ve done with an artist. She was moved to tears because her family and all her friends could see her on the jersey. But I think that really brings the strength of local connections.

Cesc: I think music has a really big, big part for us in football. Normally, there’s one designated player that will take charge of the music and will play music that everyone likes. But Spain is the place where there’s the most chaos because everyone likes a different type of music. 

So each game, we pick a player who will dictate what’s going to happen musically in the locker room. It’s really, really important because in this half an hour before the game when we listen to music, we also just pump everyone up and we get motivated and excited for the game. 

Sometimes we have one song that we all pick that we all feel identified with and we’ll just go for it. And you know it’s time for action. 

Jeremy: When you think of what you want brands to associate with you, what do you think of? What’s most important to you? 

Pola: Most important for me is to keep my image as a strong woman with my style. I really try to accept only brands with my values and ethics. At first, I posted just for me, and now all people can see my free style and they love and appreciate it. It’s just crazy—I don’t really have words for that, but it’s just so cool to be able to simply enjoy my passion. I can’t imagine my life without my ball. We are like a duo. We express ourselves together.

Cesc: I think it’s most important to bring everyone together and fight for what’s good and fight against what’s not good. Because we always have a big thing to say as sportsmen, as people who represent many, many things around the world in terms of culture and diversity. We just have to always be positive and try to improve as the world is trying to improve.  

Catch all the conversations happening on the ground at Cannes on Newsroom.Spotfy.com/SpotifyBeach2023 and listen to the full conversation on Spotify.

Spotify Celebrates 3 Years of Record-Breaking Bad Bunny Streaming With a Mexico City Fiesta

December 13, 2022

By now, the news of Bad Bunny’s record-breaking streaming success has ricocheted far and wide. The global recording artist generated over 18.5 billion streams in 2022, landing him the title of Spotify’s top artist for the third year in a row—the first artist ever to claim such an accomplishment. If you ask us, that’s cause for celebration. 

With Mexico leading over the past three years as the top market to stream Bad Bunny, it only seemed fitting to celebrate the artist’s success with 1,000 of his biggest fans, collaborators, and supporters there. So this past weekend, Spotify and Rimas (Bad Bunny’s label) joined forces to throw the ultimate after-party at Ragga Club in Mexico City to celebrate the end of his World’s Hottest Tour. Artists Rauw Alejandro, paopao, Jowell & Randy, Carin Leon, Danna Paola, Kim Loaiza, Juan de Dios Pantoja, Mario Bautista, Buscabulla, and Arcángel were among some of the guests toasting the Puerto Rican native. 

Benito himself even took to the stage in a surprise special performance where he thanked everyone for streaming his music and for celebrating this incredible moment with him. He surprised the crowd with an improvised performance of his hit “Despues de la Playa,” and with acoustic versions of “Neverita,” “Callaita,” and “El Apagon” with the backing of a Dahian El Apechao’s live merengue band. 

Key to the celebration was the Ring Ceremony, where Jeremy Erlich, Spotify’s Global Head of Music Content, joined Benito for a celebratory moment on behalf of Spotify. “Congratulations on the three-peat—the first time any artist is the most streamed for three years in a row,” he shared. “An epic showing for a career-defining year.” 

Spotify Advertising Activates in Southeast Asia for Our First-Ever ‘All Ears on You’ Events in Singapore

October 11, 2022

Yuna wears a red outfit while performing at Spotify Supper Singapore

Spotify’s advertising business has grown tremendously over the past few years—and our geographic footprint has expanded to match. One region of focus is Southeast Asia (SEA), the second-fastest-growing region globally in terms of internet users (source: eMarketer, Southeast Asia Digital Users Forecast 2022). Last week, our advertising leaders joined together in Singapore for a four-day experience to set the stage for new and relationships and grow existing ones with advertisers in Southeast Asia. 

“With our strong audio content and ubiquity strategy, Spotify is at the heart of Gen Zs and millennials in this region,” said Sea Yen Ong, Spotify Head of Sales, SEA. “On Spotify, advertisers have the opportunity to connect these uniquely engaged audiences with visual formats in the foreground and audio in the background on one single platform. This is an advantage which many other platforms and publishers are unable to promise or deliver.”

Setting the Table: All Ears on You Supper

To enhance our relationships with this community, we invited more than 40 senior brand and advertising partners to our first Singapore All Ears on You Supper at Riviera Fullerton. The night was filled with strategic conversations from regional decision makers across APAC, a delectable culinary experience, and a special artist performance. 

Spotify’s newly appointed Head of Enterprise Sales for JAPAC, Brad Grealy, opened the evening with a welcoming address. Then, Sea Yen held an open conversation with Chef Rémy Carmignani about his culinary inspirations, musical inspirations, and what guests could expect from the menu prior to the five-course meal. 

Spotify To Acquire Music Trivia Sensation Heardle

July 12, 2022

Gif where the Heardle logo changes to match the Spotify font and gains color

Listen to this story read aloud in 2 minutes and 30 seconds. 

 

If you love that you can recognize hundreds of songs within a few opening bars, you’re not alone. Passion for music runs deep—and so does showing off those skills in musical trivia. Millions do just that with Heardle, a daily music game. And at Spotify, we love all things music—and all things music trivia—which is why we’re excited to announce that the beloved interactive music trivia game will be joining Spotify. 

We see Heardle as more than a trivia game: It’s also a tool for musical discovery. Playing Heardle might just help you to rediscover old tracks you may have thought you’d forgotten, discover amazing new artists, or finally put a title to that wordless melody you’ve had caught in your head forever. 

Heardle is a simple but endlessly challenging game. Players are tasked with guessing a song based on its opening notes. They get six guesses, with each hint giving a few more seconds of music to inform their next answer. Ultimately, they get a chance to discover the song in its entirety, whether or not they guessed it correctly. 

“We are always looking for innovative and playful ways to enhance music discovery and help artists reach new fans,” commented Jeremy Erlich, Global Head of Music, Spotify. “Heardle has proven to be a really fun way to connect millions of fans with songs they know and love and with new songs . . . and a way to compete with their friends as to who has the best musical knowledge. Since its debut, the game has quickly built a loyal following, and it aligns with our plans to deepen interactivity across the Spotify ecosystem.”

For existing Heardle players, the look and feel of the game will stay the same, and it’ll remain free to play for everyone. And effective today, players can listen to the full song on Spotify at the end of the game. 

Looking ahead, there are some exciting opportunities to come. Today, we’re starting with users in the U.S., U.K., Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. And soon, hundreds of millions more people around the world will have the opportunity to play and enjoy the game in their native language. Further down the road, we are also planning to integrate Heardle and other interactive experiences more fully into Spotify to allow music lovers to connect more deeply with artists and challenge friends—and have some fun in the process. 

Spotify Refreshes Popular Playlist New Music Friday with Global Rebrand

February 21, 2020

Whether you’re a music fan or an artist, Fridays are about to get even better. Today, Spotify’s highly influential New Music Friday playlist—a curated selection of the most anticipated new tracks of the week—is debuting a global rebrand.

The revamped playlist, which has 43 versions worldwide, will continue to serve as the leading destination for listeners who want to discover new music from both established and emerging talent. With over 3.5 million followers in the U.S. and 8 million globally, it’s an achievement and milestone for artists to have their new tracks included on the list.

With today’s visual relaunch, Spotify is continuing to support its ongoing investment in the must-hear playlist brand, with a major social campaign, New York and Los Angeles billboards, and new cover art. Inspired by a trend of artists making their own celebratory New Music Friday social media assets, Spotify For Artists will now test a new feature where all artists added to the U.S. version—to start—of New Music Friday will be able to grab and share a branded and personalized social asset a la Wrapped.