Tag: Liner Notes Collaboration

Spotify Unveils Jam, a New, Personalized Way to Listen With Your Entire Squad

September 26, 2023

There are few things more powerful than connecting over a shared love of music. So over the past few years, Spotify has unveiled a wide range of new features, including Collaborative Playlists and Blend, that make sharing the music you love easier than ever. And fans love them: they’ve already created more than 45 million Blends. And in the past month alone, they’ve cumulatively spent over 200 million hours listening to the Collaborative Playlists they’ve created alongside those closest to them. 

Today we’re introducing Jam, a personalized, real-time listening session for your group to tune into together. Jam builds on some of our popular social features and combines them with our personalization technology to take real-time listening with pals to the next level. With Jam, Premium subscribers will be able to invite others to contribute through a shared queue and enjoy a musical experience made exclusively for everyone listening. 

How Jam works

Jam is rolling out for all Spotify users globally starting today—so make sure your app is up-to-date. Premium listeners everywhere can start a Jam and anyone on Spotify can join. Simply invite your squad and Jam will help you find the perfect songs to add to the queue, finding the overlaps in your listening preferences to deliver music recommendations that everyone will love. You’ll have the ability to see who’s added which track so you know whom to thank for that crowd pleaser, whether you’re prepping food together in the kitchen or enjoying games in the backyard.  

Once you start a Jam, you can invite a group of friends or family—Free or Premium users, or a mix—so they can share the experience. Premium listeners can join from wherever they are, whether they’re in the same room or across the world. 

To get grooving, select a playlist or song you’re feeling excited about. You’ll see a “Start a Jam” button by clicking the speaker icon at the bottom of your screen or by hitting the three dot menu within your favorite playlist or song. You can also select a device to play on, whether that’s your phone or speaker. Those in your household on your shared Wi-Fi will also be prompted to join the Jam when they open Spotify. 

You can then invite your squad in one of three ways:

  1. Turn on Bluetooth, then tap your phones together
  2. Have your friends scan the QR code on your host screen
  3. Hit “share” to send the link through social, text, SMS, and more

Everyone in the Jam can add songs to the queue, see who added which song, and receive recommendations, all from their own devices. The host also has the ability to determine who’s in the Jam, change the order of the tracks, or remove a song that doesn’t fit the vibe. 

Get ready for a deeper way to connect through the artists, songs, and albums that unite you—and to discover some unexpected gems with those around you.

*Update as of March 13, 2024: Jam is now available on Desktop, making listening together easier than ever. To start a Jam from Desktop:

  • Tap the three-dot menu, or right click on a playlist or song
  • Select start a Jam
  • Invite your friends through a share link or QR code to listen together, wherever you are, on desktop and mobile.

Spotify’s Innovative Fuego Playlist Turns Fans Into Music Curators

May 10, 2023

graphic cover art showing the logo of fuego mixtapes

Spotify’s Fuego has been red hot since launching last year, with surprise updates each week redefining how listeners discover Latin music. But continuously alerting fans to hot new music isn’t the only thing that sets Fuego apart. The compilation of songs is a result of open and collaborative curation between music editors and guest curators. Now Spotify is taking Fuego and its archive of weekly mixtapes to the next level by giving users the chance to curate the playlist themselves, for the first time ever.

Listeners can submit their own music lineup by visiting the Fuego Mixtape microsite. From there, select playlists will have the chance to be featured as the Fuego playlist of the week. This adds a new way to engage with favorite tracks and share them with others.

Creating an opportunity for user-generated playlists is just one of the many ways Fuego is taking music curation in a new direction. In the past, Fuego has featured guest artist curators like Feid, Myke Towers, and Eladio Carrion. In the coming months, Fuego will expand the helm to playlist takeovers from influencers like Jess Judith, Santea, and Sofia Bella. 

Bizarrap Racks Up 1 Billion Streams for “Quevedo: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 52”

April 25, 2023

a photo of the artist bizarrap holding up his billions club plaque from spotify

Bizarrap is the latest artist to reach the Billions Club. The Argentinian producer has racked up more than 1 billion streams on Spotify of his track “Quevedo: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 52,” which features Spanish rapper Quevedo. We awarded the coveted Billions Club plaque to Bizarrap following the conclusion of his “BZRP Live Tour,” a three-night performance that took place at Hipódromo Argentino de Palermo in front of more than 60,000 fans. 

From Argentina to the world

This recognition of Bizarrap’s achievement is a reflection of his incredible success on Spotify and of the global respect and admiration he’s earned through his music.

When his single with Quevedo first released last July, it only took 10 days for it to reach the top of Spotify’s global charts, and it made Bizarrap the first Argentinian artist to go number one globally. It later became Argentina’s most-streamed song in 2022, capping off a momentous year for Bizarrap and Quevedo, who also received a plaque for his contribution to the smash song.

The Bzrp Music Sessions series has been a hit on Spotify, with the top 10 most popular sessions featuring some of the biggest names in music. Shakira, Tiago PZK, NATHY PELUSO, L-Gante, Villano Antillano, Eladio Carrion, Nicky Jam, Nicki Nicole, and Aleman have all contributed, helping to catapult the young producer to fame.

Bizarrap’s growth is evident in his Spotify numbers. In just seven years, he went from 1.2 million streams to more than 2.9 billion in 2022. He was also the most-streamed Argentinian artist in the world last year.

 

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Spotify ‘opens up’ for the show

Prior to Bizarrap’s performances in Buenos Aires, Spotify teamed up with the artist and helped fans get in the spirit by launching a collaborative playlist. Listeners were invited to submit songs they wanted to hear for the warm-up, creating a new way to interact with fans before the concert kicked off.

Bizarrap’s success is a testament to his talent and hard work. Congratulations to Bizarrap and Quevedo for their historic achievement—we can’t wait to see what the future holds for these two talented artists.

 

Hear more from Bizarrap’s music sessions below:

This Earth Day, Spotify Lifts the Voices Fighting Climate Change

April 20, 2023

Climate change is a problem that impacts individuals, communities, and the planet we call home. Real solutions to help the planet exist, but it’s going to take all of us working together. 

To mark this year’s global celebration of Earth Day, we’re using our platform and reach to raise awareness and inspire climate action. Through creative approaches like songwriters camps and true crime podcasts, we’re using the power of audio to lift the voices working to protect the planet.

Informing and enabling fans through content

This Earth Day, listeners can learn from creators and get inspired to promote positive change through our Climate Action Hub, which is available globally. In addition to discovering climate-focused podcasts, audiobooks, and playlists curated by leading voices, listeners can easily click through to the UN Act Now website to take action. 

Empowering artists, producers, and songwriters

In partnership with EarthPercent, Spotify hosted “The Earth as Your Co-Writer,” a two-day songwriters camp held at the Spotify Studios in LA on April 17 and 18. As part of the effort to support climate action, participating artists RINI, UMI, Jenevieve, Zacari, Joony, and Presley elected to credit Earth as a co-writer on their songs, making the planet a stakeholder in any music released from the camp. Proceeds will go to selected EarthPercent organizations. We asked some of the participating artists to tell us more about the earth’s impact on their work. 

Tips for Creating a Successful Hack Week

March 16, 2023

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Hack Week has become something of Spotify lore. The beloved Discover Weekly playlist originated as a Hack Week idea, as did the ability to exclude select playlists from your Taste Profile. Now Spotify employees across functions worldwide look forward to the annual week where they put their regular work aside and collaborate on ideas that combine their passions, creativity, and skills. But developing Hack Week into the massive event that thousands of Spotify employees participate in annually is a feat in itself. 

According to Sarah Gänsicke and Nanci Veitch, Spotify Project Managers for R&D Communities, Hack Week started out as a “hot potato” in the early days of the company. “Each year it had the same skeleton—a kick-off event, a week of hacking, a fair, and local People’s Choice awards, but no repeatable format from a project management perspective,” Sarah shared. As Spotify matured, its teams turned Hack Week into a full-scale experience with a dedicated internal website, Skill Exchange portal (itself a Hack Week project), a developed visual identity, and an internal communications campaign to generate excitement and spread knowledge. “What has been great about the intentional scaling and effort behind the program is that it’s created a space for Hack Week to exist all year round rather than just being an engineering event that happens somehow every year,” said Nanci. Hack Week has also expanded to include non-R&D employees and now has “a long legacy throughout the company.” 

The benefits of Hack Week—providing opportunities to collaborate outside of one’s everyday team, giving employees flexibility to improve upon the product, offering ways to stretch beyond comfort zones—are endless. Nanci and Sarah offered five thoughtful tips to teams and companies looking to host their own hack weeks. 

  1. Create dedicated program management and identity. Though our core event has mostly stayed the same throughout the years, having a process that’s driven by a schedule and a set of principles has allowed us to make improvements to our communications, reduce barriers to entry, and increase the ease of participation for a diverse group of participants. For example, we developed a Hack Hub where employees can find hack ideas, explanations on how to join a team, and examples for a great hack. We also have a dedicated visual identity for Hack Week, which has helped to inspire and attract non-R&D employees. 
  2. Be inclusive. It’s not just who gets involved, but how you’re opening the door to them. We’ve enabled employees worldwide to join Hack Week by holding a mostly virtual event that abides by our distributed first principles. This year, we have hackers representing most of our global offices. We’ve also found ways to ensure Hack Week is not just for engineers. Members across many disciplines now engage in Hack Week. We encourage this by spotlighting nontraditional hacks and roles like user researchers, product designers, and music team members so they can see available opportunities. Encouragingly, we’ve found that individuals who join Hack Week are over 50% more likely to do it again. 
  3. Make the themes innovative and inspiring. This year’s theme is “The Future Is . . .” and it builds on a base of big-picture ideas inspired by recommendations from Spotify leaders. We recommend connecting the Hack Week theme back to your company’s core identity and priorities, but it’s also important to make the theme broad enough to allow for creative interpretation. With a powerful theme, people believe they’re setting their own mission. “We want to set the stage for hacks that push boundaries,” Nanci and Sarah noted. 
  4. Step out of your comfort zone. Hack Week is short, leaving many projects left unfinished—and that’s part of the beauty of the week. Goal-setting during Hack Week takes many forms but doesn’t necessarily include completion of the product. Hackers are encouraged to embrace the Spotify value of playfulness and utilize the week to get out of their day-to-day roles. We also recommend connecting and working with individuals outside of one’s direct realm. This really allows Hack Week to be a tool for interpersonal connection as well as a meaningful professional experience. 
  5. Don’t be afraid to bring in outside perspectives. This goes for participants and coordinators. Hack Week is a collaboration between Spotify’s dedicated Hack Week team and Say It Good Studio, a branding and communications studio that created and built Spotify’s Hack Week hub. “We treat Hack Week internally as if it’s an external campaign, keeping track of click-through rates and the like,” explained Sarah. “Having an external partner helps us avoid our biases, maintain good communication, and ensure it’s a more accessible process for everyone in the organization.”

Over the years, we’ve also brought inspirational figures into Hack Week to help our teams get excited about hacking. Notable artists involved in our internal campaign challenged hackers to “make space” ahead of Hack Week 2021 and “make the planet cooler” during Hack Week 2022. 

Like any good project, there’s always room for improvement. “One challenge that we’re still working through is that it’s hard to follow hacks from Hack Week to reality,” Nanci explained. “We began methodically tracking Hack Week projects in 2022 to address this and now use our Skill Exchange as a library to keep a close eye on projects that continue into development.” 

As for what the future of Hack Week at Spotify holds—we’ll leave that to the hackers to determine.