Tag: Perspectives

Women Bring Their Own Perspectives to Podcasts in Indonesia

November 19, 2021

It’s no surprise that there continues to be a strong demand for podcasts around the world. The intimate medium offers a way for hosts to directly connect with listeners about topics that are most important to them. This format is an especially captivating way for those with underrepresented voices to tell their own stories, on their own terms. In Indonesia, where the podcast community is quickly growing, Spotify is working with female creators to ensure they have a seat at the mic and are supported on the platform.

Podcasts provide a new outlet for women to share their perspectives of the world. As Indonesian creator Nadhifa Allya Tsana (also known as Tsana) explains, “Podcasts break the limits, boundaries, and rules that exist in traditional formats, all of which have played a part in suppressing females’ voices for decades. But podcasts are different. They are limitless—the creators can decide when, what, and even how long they want to discuss a topic that is meaningful to them.”

With 38 million streams, Tsana’s Spotify Exclusive podcast, Rintik Sedu (which in English translates to “sadness”), is the most streamed solo-hosted podcast in the country. Since January 2021, the show has held the number one spot on the Spotify Indonesia Charts, demonstrating the captivating hold the host, and her podcast, has on the Indonesian audience. But Tsana’s success doesn’t stop at one show. She’s expanded her presence with the teen romance-driven Spotify Original podcast Kuas, Kanvas dan Bulan Kesepian (Brushes, Canvas and Lonely Moon). Season two of the show recently launched in October 2021.

“Tsana’s unique view and gentle approach to storytelling has really resonated with her listeners,” shares Carl Zuzarte, Head of Studios for Spotify Southeast Asia. “She is paving the way for other female creators to express themselves through podcasts. Today, we see more female listeners and creators getting inspired and exploring their creativity through podcasting.” 

In response to the growing demand for relatable content that features strong female voices, Spotify is excited to announce five new Indonesian-language, female-led Spotify Original & Exclusive podcasts now available on the platform. 

NKCTHI: Surat dari Awan

This scripted fiction podcast features Indonesian actress Rachel Amanda in the lead and is based on the bestselling book and film Nanti Kita Cerita Tentang Hari Ini (NKCTHI). With two new episodes a week, the Spotify Original podcast explores the wonders and challenges of the lead character’s growth toward womanhood. 

Bisik-Bisik Senada

Talk show Bisik-Bisik Senada is a Spotify Original podcast hosted by three talented singers: Fatin Shidqia, Ghea Indrawari, and Ayuenstar. The women explore their life experiences, passion for singing, and perspectives on navigating life in the modern world.

HYPEBESTIE

Personalities Sarra Tobing, Canti Tachril, and Hadi Sylvester come together to discuss their views on love, life, and relationships as Gen Zers and millennials in this Spotify Original podcast. 

Happy Go Go

Spotify Original podcast Happy Go Go is hosted by up-and-coming comedians Mimin and Kimau, who are joined by actress Siva Aprilia. The show gives listeners a fresh perspective on life and wellness. 

Cape Mikir with Jebung

This show, which is exclusive to Spotify, is hosted by popular Indonesian singer Jebung. Episodes bring listeners into her world, where she discusses a variety of topics that pique her interest.

Head of Songwriter and Publishing Relations Jules Parker Explains How Spotify Is Bringing Behind-the-Scenes Creators Into the Spotlight

July 8, 2020

Recently, we announced the release of a beta version of songwriter pages and “Written By” playlists, which helps fans, collaborators, and industry partners dive deeper into some of the creators behind their favorite songs. For songwriters, it serves as a new way to share the songs they’ve written on Spotify and get discovered by potential collaborators and fans. As part of that beta, today, we’re unveiling additional pages and playlists from a wide array of incredible songwriters. 

Jules Parker, Spotify’s Head of Songwriter and Publishing Relations, is heading up a new team across Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, and London focused on expanding our support of songwriters and publishers all over the world. A former songwriter as well as the owner of a songwriter and artist management company, Jules not only understands the tools used in music creation, but he also appreciates the difficulty of the job—and why it’s so important to recognize the work put in behind the scenes. 

We spoke to Jules about his team’s work. Read on to learn more about the world of music publishing and how Spotify’s new songwriter pages are helping connect songwriters, publishers, artists, and fans.

Say you’re a songwriter who’s penned a tune and needs someone to sing it. What’s the process for approaching an artist or getting one to find you, and how does Spotify play into that?

There’s a long-standing perception of a solo songwriter pitching their songs to other people. This can happen—and of course, many artists write and record their own songs—but the reality today is that you generally get in a room with an artist and write a song together, then and there. (Or alternatively, you’ll swap tracks and toplines over email and write the song virtually—all too common these days). So it’s all about networking and collaborating—and that’s where publishers come in. A publisher looks to connect artists with songwriters and other creative opportunities. Plus, these days there are even more opportunities for songwriters to transition to also be successful recording artists—like Julia Michaels, Benny Blanco, and more.

At Spotify, we’re now giving publishers and writers more ways to help unlock opportunities via analytic and songwriter tools. These will, long term, help support both up-and-coming and established writers because they’ll have more information, leading to better connections and networks. Through our Publishing Analytics, publishers and teams can access next-day song and writer stats based on accurate data, and through our songwriting camps and free-to-use studio spaces, writers and artists can pair up to create something new.

Can you tell us a little more about the tools and opportunities Spotify has for songwriters and publishers?

First, we created a home for songwriters with the songwriter page on Spotify. It’s a pilot program—just the start of how we can help songwriters further build their identity and showcase what they’ve done. We’ve also created Written By playlists, which are featured on these pages. We’re working on rolling them out to more and more writers—and just unveiled some new ones today—but they’re a great way for fans to get to know the work of a specific songwriter.

We’ve also been hosting songwriting camps for artists around playlists, genres, or specific artist projects. We’ve done ones around Who We Be, The Most Beautiful Songs in the World, and Butter. Through these camps, we’re providing the opportunity for collaboration in creating great songs that may appear on our flagship playlists or perhaps earn a Grammy nomination. (Here’s looking at Grammy-winning “a lot” by 21 Savage, which was created at a Spotify songwriting camp run by our Atlanta-based Head of Songwriter Relations Paris Kirk).

Finally, we have writing studios that songwriters or publishers can book in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Nashville, Toronto, and London free of charge. We invite songwriters to use these as a place to collaborate and create songs. We’re constantly evolving this project and expanding access to it, and we hope to set up new locations in the future. 

Why is Spotify investing in these projects and tools? 

Supporting songwriters and publishers helps them be able to do what they do best: create and promote the music you love. Your favorite songs begin with songwriters, so the more opportunities we can provide, the better we can help them create that next hit, and the more reasons you have to stream their music. 

Songwriters and publishers are vital parts of the music industry, though what they do is less publicly known, so they often don’t have the visibility they deserve. But we can help with that, because Spotify has a unique ability to drive discovery. Since we began publicly displaying song credits on Spotify in 2018, we’ve seen a 60% increase in how often labels and distributors credit songwriters on their new releases, allowing artists and fans to dig deeper and recognize the work behind the scenes. Now, with the addition of more detail from publishers, we’ve been able to go further in recognizing those behind the songs. 

With the expansion of songwriter pages we’re continuing to evolve how music is discovered, appreciated, and enjoyed by the world. Supporting publishers and songwriters goes hand in hand with artist discovery. People know who an artist is. They don’t know who the writers are, necessarily. If we can help make those connections, we help people discover new music and open up potential career opportunities for the songwriter. It all ties back to our mission of helping creators live off their work.

I was actually just listening to Mark Ronson’s Written By playlist and I discovered new tracks that I didn’t know he had written. I then discovered new artists because of a songwriter I love. It goes both ways. We’re exposing those connections that are not always visible but so important.

These new features enable fans to discover new things about the music they love. What are one or two of your favorite songwriting fun facts?

I think that a lot of people know that Prince wrote “Nothing Compares 2 U,” but loads of people don’t know that he also wrote “Manic Monday.”

There’s also a great Revisionist History podcast episode around the song “Hallelujah.” It was written by Leonard Cohen but only became the standard for ballads more recently, after people like Jeff Buckley started recording it in different ways. Now everyone knows it—thanks to the covers—which shows how the versions of it can take it in completely different directions.

Discover songwriters for yourself starting with Shungudzo Kuyimba’s Written By playlist

6 Questions (and Answers) with Claudius Boller, Managing Director, Spotify Middle East and Africa

December 2, 2019

How do we build the future of the music industry in the Middle East and Africa? A few years ago, that was the question Claudius Boller was asking himself. He had moved to Dubai from Germany in 2007 on behalf of Arvato-Bertelsmann to begin to build up the first digital music services in the region.

Later, Claudius joined Universal Music to set up their operation in the Middle East and North Africa and started digging into the puzzle of digital music. Along the way, he gleaned the expertise needed to promote and advance artists in the unique and vibrant region. From there, he joined Spotify, and for the past two and a half years he has served as Spotify’s Managing Director for MEA, covering the Middle East, North Africa and South Africa. 

Now a year into Spotify’s launch in 13 new markets in the region, Claudius is continuing to build the Middle Eastern and African market. And he’s as excited as ever. “We bring new things to people and at a scale that is unheard of. The Middle East and Africa have some of the youngest, fastest-growing populations in the world. It’s truly fascinating where the journey can take us.”

Read on for more of our conversation.

About a year ago, Spotify launched in 13 markets in the Middle East and North Africa. Only a few months prior to that was Spotify’s launch in South Africa. What are some of the unique factors that went into the launch, and some of the things that you brought in with your knowledge from being in the region for over a decade?

When it comes to launching a music service, there’s thousands of factors that play a role. I think it was instrumental to have the background of working at a label, since we have licensed and learned from other music services prior to Spotify entering the markets. We had to be overly creative to develop the much-needed digital monetization for creators in a region that had not developed it yet. 

Spotify’s ambition is really to bring music to everyone, and we need to be 100% locally relevant with our consumer offering. So we also made Spotify available in Arabic. This was quite tricky since we had to mirror the interfaces and Arabic language right to left. 

But what’s also unique in the region is that we are facing a highly diverse landscape. Though the Arabic language unites some of the countries, we have lots of very different dialects, cultures, and habits. And then in countries like Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria, French is one of the major languages. 

What are some markers of success you’ve already seen across your markets in the Middle East and Africa? 

We created the Arab Hub and Afro Hub and made them available globally—kind of the gateway for local music to be discovered by our truly global audience on Spotify. Today we have about 248 million active users around the world, and that is changing the game for a lot of artists and labels as they reach new audiences.

Additionally, the introduction of Spotify Lite to the market ensures that music fans can access music in regions where connections, expensive data plans, and a wider penetration of older mobile phones are more common. Spotify Lite demonstrates our dedication to localizing technology and innovation for each region, including the Middle East and Africa.

The big game changer is also the increase in use of Spotify for Artists, where artists can see and learn about their audience for the first time. And, they’re surprised that they have huge fan bases already, maybe in the Americas or in Europe that they naturally wouldn’t be aware of—last month, for example, we put Amr Diab on a billboard in Times Square, the first-ever Arabic music artist to be featured there. We’re elevating local artists to the world stage. 

What are some other ways Spotify is helping artists in the region?

We offer educational classes where we bring in between five and 100 artists, distributors, managers, producers, and songwriters to talk about digital music distribution. How can they reach a global audience? How can they use Spotify’s data to do partnerships, negotiate with labels? We see firsthand how this is changing lives and careers. There is such a big difference here of what we can do with the creative community and so much potential.

What international music is being streamed in the region? And what are the hottest trends or genres coming out of your market?

Users in Saudi Arabia are exploring music from all across the world, like K-Pop. When BTS came to Saudi Arabia, it was a massive success.

But it also works the other way around. Egyptian Mahraganat is being played elsewhere, Maghreb (northern African) hip-hop is big in France—and trap is booming in both MENA and Latin America. We have music coming from the Levant and Egypt trending in Brazil. We have AmaPiano, the most relevant house music genre in South Africa—something I’m really excited about—getting big outside the country and being played in other regions across the world. 

What were some surprising occurrences that came about after launch in the Middle Eastern and North African market?

The Gulf countries love technology. So they’re using their smart speakers. They’re using our  in-car integrations day in and day out. Usage on smartphones, smart watches is extremely high. This is really what Spotify stands for, right? For true ubiquity.

One big success story in particular is our PlayStation partnership, which we rolled out globally. The gaming community in the Gulf countries, especially in Saudi Arabia, is one of the biggest. Our PlayStation integration adds to the experience as they can listen to our playlists—especially those with traditional Khaleeji music—as well as Iraqi music. They also create their own playlists to match their gaming experience. 

Finally, if we were to take a look at your “recently played,” what would we see?

Tons of kid songs, because my daughter figured out how to use the smart speakers, but it’s so much fun. Personally, I’m very much into ’90s rock and hip-hop. But what I really love at the moment is AmaPiano. It’s so fascinating. Everything about AmaPiano is new, it’s edgy. It’s engaging. It’s crisp, and it has a lot of energy. So I love the AmaPiano trend, and I think we can all stay tuned to see what it does globally.

Take a listen to Yalla for more of the sounds coming out of the Middle East and North Africa. 

Introducing Spotify Kids, A New Standalone App for the Next Generation of Listeners

October 30, 2019

Spotify is committed to bringing audio content such as music and stories to more people in more ways–including the next generation of listeners. That’s why we decided to launch a fun standalone app designed with safety in mind specifically for kids and families.*

 

We sat down with Alex Norström, Spotify’s Chief Premium Business Officer, to learn a little more about the app. 

1. Why create a Spotify Kids app now? What can users look forward to?

We know that families love listening together—whether it’s while driving in the car or cooking dinner together in the kitchen. But we also know that family members love to listen on their own too. That’s why we’re so excited to welcome the next generation of listeners—kids—into the Family Plan experience. 

Kids consuming audio content, such as music and stories, isn’t a new phenomenon—in fact, they love it. But most audio experiences were built with adults in mind—meaning they’re not simple, easy, or fun for young kids to use. 

Spotify Kids was born out of the desire to create a playground of sound just for kids—to build a place where younger kids can explore their favorite music and stories in a fun environment. The content is ad-free and hand-picked by a team of editors, and the experience is bursting with color. Our visuals help guide young minds through the app with simple navigation and scaled-back text. Before setting out to explore, each kid can also select a custom avatar and color theme to personalize their experience. 

Spotify Kids is a composite of playlists, which makes it easy for kids to find music and stories from their favorite movies and TV shows or hit plays on a playlist to sing along to during their favorite activity—or their least favorite chore.  

We’re thrilled to beta launch in Ireland and look forward to introducing Spotify Kids in all markets that have Premium Family in the coming months. As we evolve the app experience, we’ll roll out enhanced parental settings and controls for even more customization in an effort to give parents peace of mind. 

2. How is the Spotify Kids app different from the original app? Any unique content?

Spotify Kids is a standalone app available exclusively for Premium Family subscribers and intended for kids ages 3+. The content within Kids is hand-picked by a team of editors, who have nearly 100 years of combined experience curating content for kids. They come from some of the most well-respected brands in this space, including Nickelodeon, Disney, Discovery Kids, and Universal Pictures, as well as Public Service in Sweden and BookBeat, which is a family- and kids-oriented audio streaming service.  

Beyond the content, the entire Spotify Kids user experience looks and feels different from the Spotify app. And that’s intentional. It’s built for kids, with their specific cognitive skills in mind, and exudes a fun, familiar, playful, and bright atmosphere. This look and feel also varies by age group—for example, the artwork for younger kids is softer and character-based, while content for older kids is more realistic and detailed. 

3. Why launch in beta? What are you hoping to learn? 

Having a standalone app specifically for younger kids is a new space for Spotify, and we understand the sensitivities around content for children. We are being very deliberate in our launch approach. We’ve started with a beta launch in Ireland, knowing that this initial roll-out phase will yield many learnings from parents, caregivers and other experts as they begin to interact with the app.

As we evolve the Spotify Kids experience over time, we plan to enhance parental control features to allow for even more customization. We’ll also bring our audio expertise to the table with listening experiences that go beyond music—like more stories and audiobooks and eventually podcasts.

4. As you were building the app, did you tap any external resources? Say, consult with any parent organizations or conduct focus groups?

While launching this kids app is an exciting moment for Spotify, creating it was not a task we took lightly. We knew the importance of understanding parents’ needs and making sure they would have peace of mind about the content their kids are consuming. 

Spotify has spent more than two years learning about this space, and we’ll continue to learn as people begin to interact with the app. We have gathered expert insight from a number of organizations, including the National Children’s Museum in Washington, D.C.,  and conducted our own studies with parents around the world and tapped into our Employee Resource Groups here at Spotify.

Spotify Kids is available starting today in Ireland. Ready to get started? Spotify Premium Family master account holders can simply download Kids from the App Store or Google Play, then sign in to their regular Spotify account. (If you’re new to Spotify, you’ll need to sign up for Premium Family before signing in to Spotify Kids.)

For those outside of Ireland, Kids will be rolling out to all markets that currently have Premium Family. Be sure to check back here for more or check out spotify.com/ie/kids.

*Update March 17, 2020: Spotify Kids has also rolled out in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.

Update February 11, 2020: Spotify Kids has also rolled out in the UK and Australia. 

Update November 27, 2019: Spotify Kids has also rolled out in Denmark, Sweden, and New Zealand.

Update May 12, 2020: Spotify Kids has also rolled out in Germany and Japan.

6 Questions (and Answers) with Tony Jebara, VP of Machine Learning

October 24, 2019

Tony Jebara, Spotify’s new Vice President of Machine Learning, says he started studying the algorithm-based technology when he was in college, “before it was cool.” Now, machine learning is not only undeniably cool, but it’s also incredibly practical—it also enables fan-favorite playlists like Discover Weekly, and more recent creations like On Repeat and Repeat Rewind.

Tony and his team of engineers and research scientists, therefore, have a two-fold mission: To analyze data on what users search and stream, and use those learnings to run experiments that turn into some of your favorite personalized playlists and personalized homepages.

We recently sat down with Tony, and he explained why, after four years as the director of machine learning at Netflix, he was intrigued by Spotify, where machine learning is central to our company strategy.

As a guitarist and songwriter, it was a perfect—dare we say algorithmic—fit.

First, what is machine learning? How do you use it at Spotify?

Machine learning finds patterns in data in a statistically reliable way so that we are confident they were not flukes. Then, it studies that data to determine what actions to take for each context in order to maximize reward. We’re not just trying to find patterns in the data, but cause and effect relationships too.

At Spotify, machine learning helps us match millions of users to the content (e.g. tracks, podcasts) most relevant to them at an unparalleled speed. We’re aiming to facilitate the user journey and make it enjoyable so that it doesn’t involve as much hunting around on our app. It’s a way for us to say ‘you’re going to love these things, let me put them at the top of your page for you,’ and also accelerate that process based on what people with similar interests have discovered.

You came from Netflix, which is a really interesting player in the machine learning space. How does your work today leverage past experience?

There are lots of similarities. Both services have to algorithmically match users to the right content and both have to decide how to invest in content and creators. But one key difference is that the Spotify catalog is huge—there are over 50 million songs and hundreds of thousands of podcasts. On the flip side, the Netflix catalog only has to deal with thousands of movies and TV shows. So, machine learning and algorithms play a much more crucial role at Spotify.

What makes Spotify’s application of machine learning unique or special?

If you think about what Spotify does, we deliver really, truly personalized experiences on a global level and in localized markets. Creating one personalized playlist for one user in one market can be challenging, but it’s doable with a human curator.  We take cultural aspects into consideration, because in culture it’s about more than drawing a straight line from the past into the future. Cultural shifts are sometimes erratic or anything but linear. That’s why we increasingly invest in systems that combine human experts and algorithms. While humans are good at articulating the “new, interesting and unexpected twist”, algorithms are better at scaling that curation to a personal experience for millions of people.

If you have a catalog of millions of songs and a global market of, you know, 200 million plus, you need to be able to scale your efforts thoughtfully. Machine learning allows and enables us to do that at the speed and quality consistency that Spotify is known for.

Our algorithms allow us to scale out very personalized, hand-selected experiences that help members feel were made just for them. The goal is to deliver an amazing listening experience.

What will machine learning mean for our creators—artists and podcasters—on platform?

With machine learning, we can expand our audience analytics capabilities in a way that helps creators get new fans. It’s no longer just about knowing if your song has been downloaded or streamed 8 million times, it’s about creating a connection between artists, creators and their fans. With machine learning, we can actually start to inform them about what types of people are consuming their work, at what time, and what it gets consumed with. You know—like pairing wine with food. What songs are this podcast dining well with? Things like that help unclog creative potential because people can understand their audiences better. Then they get valuable feedback, something that so many creators crave.

Machine learning is a fast-moving field, to say the least. What do you think the future of machine learning will look like? Let’s say three years from now?  

Over the next three years, machine learning will become more causal and long-term. Right now, machine learning mostly uncovers superficial input-output relationships. For example, given what you played today, here’s what you’ll play tomorrow. This leads to short-term engagement but might not yield long-term satisfaction. My hope is that three years from now, machine learning becomes less myopic. It should figure out the best sequence of actions to lead you on a journey where you discover new great audio content, become more engaged, and stay satisfied as a listener for years to come.

Now before we go, are there any podcasts you’re especially into right now? When do you listen to them?

I’m kind of nerdy, so I like Stuff You Should Know. It’s not a story, it’s just interesting things around nutrition or technology or political facts. I like to listen to it and learn about some random new things popping up.

I usually listen to podcasts while I’m lying in bed, when I don’t want to hold my screen or have the blue light keep me up but still want to learn something new.