“Spotify: For The Record” Podcast Reveals Its "Styles" And How It Made its "Markle"

Spotify released the newest episode of its podcast series, “Spotify: For The Record” - a series that takes listeners behind the scenes on breaking news, product launches, and business updates at Spotify. 

This episode dives into Spotify’s 2022 Q1 earnings and key partnerships that shaped the brand’s latest financial quarter. 

You can listen to the full episode here. 

Spotify reports positive developments from music to podcasting including Harry Styles breaking streaming records with his new single and Meghan Markle’s new podcast partnership. This episode features exclusive interviews with Spotify’s CEO, Daniel Ek, Chief Freemium Business Officer, Alex Norström, and Global Head of Public Affairs, Dustee Jenkins, on Spotify’s latest initiatives, including Loud & Clear, Spotify FC Barcelona partnership, Google Billing deal. Lastly, the episode concludes with a sneak peek of an upcoming episode that will take listeners behind the scenes of the FC Barcelona partnership and Camp Nou stadium renovations.

Key Moments in the episode: Spotify’s acquisition strategy - 05:29-06:27
Spotify’s new Loud & Clear service/site - 13:28-15:22
Spotify’s FC Barcelona partnership - 11:35-13:03 (Daniel Ek) / 25:45-27:19 (Alex Norström)
Google Billing deal - 09:25-11:10 (Daniel Ek) / 23:45 - 24:25 (Alex Norström)
Spotify’s response to the Russa/Ukraine conflict - 02:27- 3:40
How Camp Nou and music will play a role in FC Barcelona partnership - 29:27-30:20

 Daniel Ek on Spotify’s acquisition strategy. “It's always played a pretty big role in Spotify's life. We do make a bunch of acquisitions each year and that's something that's kept on going, and we do it for a number of different reasons. Sometimes it truly is to get the existing distribution that some of those acquired companies have into customers or markets. Sometimes it is for technology and sometimes it is for DNA. So a good example of the DNA portion would be when we got into podcasting, we started by acquiring Anchor and Gimlet and then subsequently acquired Ringer and Parcast. And that was how our foray into podcasting began. And I don't think we would have been where we are today if it weren't for those acquisitions, that DNA, that technology that ultimately helped us ladder up from a music company to a podcasting company and now going all the way up to an audio company.”

 Daniel Ek on Spotify’s new Loud & Clear service/site. “It's once again pushing our value of transparency. The important part is that there's been enormous progress on pretty much all the key metrics. On the very, very top line, we announced that we've paid out more than $7 billion in the last 12 months, which is pretty insane when you think about that growth. That growth, in turn, had led to more success for more artists and not just the very big artists on the platform, but actually for a lot of newer artists that are making their entrance into music as well. And more importantly, artists are going from being perhaps amateur artists to supporting themselves professionally in making a career…”

Alex Norström on Spotify’s FC Barcelona partnership. “ …this is a super special partnership for us. And so at the heart of it, Spotify is becoming the main partner for Football Club Barcelona. So what we're talking about here is a partnership where we are, on the one hand, a shirt sponsor and on the other hand, we're also the title sponsor for what's going to be called Spotify Camp Nou. Sports is a big fandom within culture and football is the biggest sport. And here we are with FC Barca, who's one of the biggest clubs in the world. And so for us, that matters simply because we are looking for scale in our partnerships. And I'd venture to say that this is one of the few partnerships where we would be able to get access to a different side of culture at the same time as a super scaled reach. We are going to try to kind of push the boundaries a little and see if we can, together with players together with the club, highlight creator's work, right, musicians' work, whether that be on the shirt or, you know, in the arena. And so that's going to be very, very special for us. And then emerging markets for Spotify is a huge source of user growth at the moment.”

Daniel Ek on the recent Google Billing deal. “...So when you think about the Google deal, this was just a very, very big step in that direction where Google now allows Spotify to truly reach our customers in the way we would like, bill our customers in the way that we think customers wants to do and give them that choice, both of using Google App billing, but also direct billing from Spotify if the customer prefers that too. So we think this is a step in the right direction and totally in line where we want to take this, and we hope to bring much more news, where there's more partnership and more things coming in the coming weeks and months.”

Daniel Ek on Spotify’s response to the Russa/Ukraine conflict. “...first off, obviously, this is a terrible, terrible conflict and I fully sympathize, as does all of us at Spotify, with all the victims in Ukraine. And we really, really do hope that this terrible conflict ends very shortly. What happened obviously, it's an unprecedented event. Europe has not seen war now for a long time. The first and most important thing for me as a CEO is obviously the safety of our employees - we had employees in Russia - and guardrail for that. The second was the impact we could have as a platform for creators and news to report on the conflict, to give as many people as possible an objective view about what was going on in this region and when we learned that it would no longer be possible to take that position, we decided to exit the market. But I do think again, it's very important that our function here is with our values as a platform and as a company, and when we no longer can perform that function we decided to exit the market.”

Alex Norström on how Camp Nou and music will play a role in FC Barcelona partnership. “Well, it's a fantastic venue and once the renovations are finished, it's going to seat over 100,000, which literally means that it's one of the absolute biggest seated stadiums in the world. And so we know that sports and music go well together. We can, you know, firsthand witness that every year at the Super Bowl in the US, and here we are, you know, in Europe with the biggest sport in the world, which is football, and one of the biggest clubs in the world. I think we found a canvas here or a stage, if you will, for us to help highlight artists, musicians, and creators' work. We know that fans love music. We know that players love music. Furthermore, we know that creators and musicians and artists love football. So I'm pretty sure that we're going to figure something out as far as doing something with creators and players and the stadium.” 

You can listen to the full episode here.