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Music fandom is about more than just listening to music and going to shows: It’s connecting with an artist, their songs, and their fellow followers. And what better way to signal your love, and maybe strike up a conversation with another fan, than by repping your favorites with a t-shirt or other merch?
At Spotify, we’re always looking for new ways to grow the bond between artists and fans. Our latest feature, Blend, combines the best of our personalization capabilities and collaborative playlist functionality to help you create a playlist that syncs your music taste with that of your friend’s or artists’ like BTS, Charli XCX, Kacey Musgraves, andMegan Thee Stallion.
Now we’re expanding the popular feature to even more artists including Lizzo, The Chainsmokers, and Post Malone.And we’re also adding a new element: the opportunity to shop artist merch from the Blend experience so you can literally wear your love on your sleeve.
Here’s how you can Blend with one of these artists and then purchase their merch:
Click on an artist’s name in this story to be directed to Blend. Or, check out the artist’s link from their social channels. You can now choose from Lizzo, The Chainsmokers, and Post Malone.
Let Spotify make a playlist tailored to your shared tastes.
Check out your social sharecard. It contains your Taste Match score, which shows the percentage of music taste you two have in common. Then, share it directly to Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, or Twitter.
After you get your Taste Match score, you’ll have the opportunity to purchase the artist’s featured merch via our integration with Shopify. All the pieces of merch have been selected by the artists themselves and include items such as t-shirts, vinyl albums, and more.
It’s our mission to build new opportunities for creators to live off their work, and our larger partnership with Shopify makes it easier than ever for artists to sell their merch on Spotify. By putting merch alongside the music experience, we’re increasing purchase opportunities and generating incremental sales for creators.
The stars aligned yesterday forKacey Musgraves’s top fans living in the Nashville area. Ahead of the singer’s highly anticipated fifth studio album, star-crossed, Spotify partnered with Kacey to create an exclusive and immersive fan experience.
The album, releasing on September 10, will invoke ’90s sounds and themes to take listeners on Kacey’s journey through adulthood, matrimony, and heartbreak. To complement her upcoming music, Kacey partnered with Spotify to create the “Simple Times Machine,” an immersive fan experience specially designed to bring her creative vision and songs to life.
Inside the “Simple Times Machine” Experience
When fans arrived at the venue, they were ushered through a portal that took them back to a simpler time: the 1990s. Watch as Kacey and fans stroll down memory lane through the “Simple Times Machine” experience.
In recent years, country music has evolved. There are now many artists pushing the boundaries of what the genre means—while at the same time carrying on the traditions of detailed storytelling, organic instrumentation, and production stylings that have long defined country music. To celebrate those songs, Spotify is launching a new playlist called Indigo, available today.
Indigo is a new playlist of contemporary country music that encapsulates the time-honored music style. For some, it may evoke flashbacks to the breakout of country in the ’70s and ’80s, when Willie Nelson, Gram Parsons, Merle Haggard, and Emmylou Harris first had their moments.
The goal of the Indigo playlist is to help widen the playing field for artists who span country subgenres from pop and Americana to bluegrass but stick close to country’s roots in some of their songs. Indigo is the place to celebrate the work of those artists. From mainstream superstars like Kacey Musgraves to risk-takers redefining success like Tyler Childers and burgeoning songwriters like Orville Peck, the artists on the playlist are nothing if not diverse.
Today is International Country Music Day, so we thought we’d dust off the ol’ cowboy boots and dig into some data to see just how widespread country music listening is.
The genre may have originated in America’s South in the 1920s, but in 2018, listeners are as enthusiastic about country music in Hanoi as they are in Nashville, and fill arenas in Sydney as quickly as they do the revered Grand Ole Opry.
While the bulk of country listening takes place in the U.S., we’ve seen a 21 percent increase in the share of country music streaming outside America since 2015. And we expect to see even more growth as streaming continues to allow music of all types to cross borders with greater ease than traditional bastions like country music radio.
Check out this map highlighting how country music listening stacks up around the globe.
And it’s not just the music that travels, it’s the artists themselves. When Texas-born Kacey Musgraves learned she had a sizable fanbase in the U.K., the Grammy-winner made it her mission to meet listeners there face to face. In March, we teamed up with Kacey to invite her biggest London-based fans to an intimate invite-only Spotify Fans First Event, where Kacey joined them for high tea at the stately mansion Spencer House, followed by an acoustic performance.
“Most country artists now understand that in order to expand their businesses, it’s essential to develop followings in markets outside the United States,” says John Marks, Head of Country Music at Spotify. “I’ve seen many established artists start paying attention to audiences in countries where they previously hadn’t considered touring. And many newer artists are working to develop their fan base outside the U.S. and in the U.S. simultaneously, with the goal of being a truly global music artist.”
Country music may have gotten its start in Nashville, TN, but it has since expanded far beyond. For some time, country music fans around the world have been looking for a way to help them connect to the artists they love, discover new music, and share their love of the Country genre. With Spotify’s Hot Country Playlist—now enhanced with video—they may just find it.
Enhanced playlists, like the previously launched Rap Caviar and ¡Viva Latino!, combine music and video into a single view. This allows users to listen to their favorite audio tracks as well as watch interviews and music videos featuring their favorite artists. Enhanced playlists bring storytelling back to music discovery—a theme that country music emphasizes as well.
After enjoying the constantly refreshing playlist throughout the week, listeners can tune in every Friday to experience new and original country video interviews with an all-new Hot Country look and feel. First up: Grammy Award winner Keith Urban, who takes the wheel today with a feature cover story that coincides with the release of his new album, Graffiti U. On Hot Country, Keith gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at his extensive guitar collection, discusses his love of playing in his new home studio, and dives into the inspiration behind his new album.
While reflecting on the Hot Country playlist, Keith Urban said; “Spotify has been an amazing partner, helping me to connect my music with people all over the planet. On their new Hot Country playlist people will not only hear Graffiti U, they’ll be able to come inside the studio with me and see a bit about the making of the album. Can’t wait for everyone to hear it.”
According to Brittany Schaffer, Head of Artist and Label Marketing at Spotify’s Nashville office, the country music audience has been slower to adopt streaming than audiences of other genres. But, “country artists have been craving the attention of the streaming services to help bring the country audience into streaming and craving a deeper ability to connect with and expand their audiences,” she says. “The enhancement of the Hot Country playlist is Spotify’s first significant step in helping artists do just that.”
Schaffer also notes that the enhanced playlist is only the beginning of Spotify’s collaboration with the country industry. “Spotify is serious about making an impact in country music, and the launch of the Hot Country enhanced playlist is only the first step in showing that commitment,” she says. “This opportunity is opening new doors for current and potential listeners of country music, in Nashville and around the world. Our commitment doesn’t start and end with the launch of Hot Country.”
Through Hot Country and upcoming Spotify partnerships, fans can look forward to behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with their favorite country artists such as Keith Urban, Kacey Musgraves, and Kenny Chesney. From a tour of Keith Urban’s new state-of-the-art home recording studio in Nashville and the making of Kenny Chesney’s stadium tour to video footage from Kacey Musgraves’ Fan-First high tea in London or Justin Timberlake x Chris Stapleton’s Spotify Premium event recording of “Say Something” at the Roundhouse in London, Spotify is dedicated to telling the stories of country’s biggest names.
To bring more Hot Country to its more than 4.5 million followers worldwide, the enhanced playlist feature will also launch in four additional markets outside the U.S.: Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Spain (in addition to the UK, Sweden, and Latin America). According to John Marks, Programming Head of Country Music at Spotify, the audience for country music will only keep growing. “There are multiple awakenings happening right now. Streaming is opening a global market. There’s been a hybridizing of other international music into the country playlists, which is opening people’s eyes and minds to country music in other countries. Launching in those markets—which have very active fan bases—will start to speed up the process.”
Marks, who has a long history working in Nashville with country industry and artists, is enthusiastic about the partnership—and he’s not the only one, he says. “The Nashville music industry and Nashville artists have really embraced this idea out of the shoot. We have some big stars on board with Keith Urban and Kenny Chesney, and there are plenty others on queue. It’s really been gratifying to see how quickly and how nimbly everyone in the industry has supported this idea of enhanced playlists and to see it all come together.”
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