Tag: production

Spotify’s LA Recording Studio is a Creative Hub for Artists and Podcasters

December 22, 2022

Studio photos by Brad Devins and Sean Michon

When we talk about making Spotify the preferred destination for artists, we sometimes mean it figuratively—alluding to the reach of our platform, the programs we have for up-and-coming creators, and beyond. But when it comes to our LA office, At Mateo, we also mean it literally. Our hub in Los Angeles is a state-of-the-art music- and podcast-recording facility with doors opened wide to creators for audio innovation and celebration—and there’s something for every creator at every stage of their career. 

Chris D’Angelo, Spotify’s Head of Production & Studio Facilities, and William Garrett, Senior Music Producer/Studio Development Lead—two of the space’s biggest champions—have been thinking about how to best use the space since its inception. And now that it’s open, they’re realizing even more ways to make it attractive and accessible to creators well into the future. 

“When we first sat down to design the offices, we wanted to enable music, video, and audio production to happen right here at the Spotify offices in a really great environment,” Chris told For the Record. “And so we really talked a lot about who would be coming in and what type of artists, what type of creators, what the employees would need to do, and what the community that we were building in would want, need, or expect from us. We spent a lot of time thinking about how each constituent would need to use it.”

Read on to see how Chris, William, and the team’s thoughtfulness has come to create a space where creators feel at home. 

Let’s make music

Fans Worldwide Can Now Stream Duki and BZRP’s Session—And Watch Spotify’s Exclusive Video

November 16, 2022

Biza and Duka

Like so many artists of his generation, Bizarrap started out as a “bedroom producer” making beats over a capella freestyles and remixes of local trap artists using inexpensive tools and self-taught production. But the Argentinian 24-year-old has gone well beyond that, creating a name for himself on the global production scene by collaborating with artists from around the world. 

Thanks to the Bizarrap Freestyle Sessions, which he started in 2014, BZRP is now heralded as the first Argentine artist with the most songs featured in the Spotify Global Top 200. His collaborators include Villano Antillano, Nicky Jam, Snow Tha Product, NATHY PELUSO, and many more. 

Now BZRP has reached more than 50 freestyle sessions, and to celebrate, he’s collaborated with the number-one artist from Argentina: Duki. Duki listeners may remember the artist’s dismissal of the idea in 2019. But after a few years of fans’ urging and requesting the collaboration, the two artists promised to do a session together if the Argentinian National Team became Copa América champions. (Spoiler alert: The team won in 2021). 

After spending a year finessing the single, “Duki: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 50” is here—just in time for the next-biggest football event for Argentina and the world.

In honor of the milestone collaboration, we also released an exclusive video set in Biza’s home studio. We personified iconic elements from Biza’s studio such as the wallpaper, mic, synthesizer, and speakers by giving them the voices of Spanish streamer IBAI, Southern Cone’s most prominent streamer, Coscu, Mexican YouTuber Luisito, and Argentinean journalists Morena Beltran and Julio Leiva, chatting as they eagerly anticipate the 50th session.