06-07 Tools CompanionLabs 08-09 Campaigns Björk, X Ambassadors, Mabel 10–15 Behind The Campaign- Hot Chip SEPTEMBER 18 2019 sandboxMUSIC MARKETING FOR THE DIGITAL ERA ISSUE 236 THE NEXT STEP FOR PLAYLISTS COVERFEATURE personalisation to some of its human- curated playlists, creating personalised editorial playlists that it says better reflect individual listening. Apple Music announced at the end of August that it was to launch New Music Daily, a playlist that, as you might expect, updates daily with new music, like a turbo-charged take on Spotify’s New Music Friday. Going further, Spotify has recently dabbled in ‘Enhanced Album’ playlists for artists such as Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and The Beatles, while Apple Music has started to employ well-known visual artists to create artwork for its playlist brands. THE NEXT STEP FOR PLAYLISTS POWER PLAYS laylists have become such an important Playlists still wield an enormous amount of power, part of the music marketing armoury but precisely how they do that has changed significantly Pover the last decade that it is tempting in recent years. At the heart of this are the two biggest to think of them as some kind of vast, players, Spotify and Apple Music, taking very different homogenous entity. But the truth is, even approaches. This is having a knock-on effect for setting aside the obvious divide between the algorithmic and the human-generated, marketing and promotion as weekly playlists are squaring streaming playlists vary significantly from up with daily playlists; exclusive playlists are trying platform to platform and from user to to steal a march on enhanced playlists; music playlists user. What’s more, playlists themselves are ceding dominance to podcasts (“podlists”?). At a are constantly evolving, as are streaming time when everything is up for grabs, how should you services’ attitudes towards them. Given the importance of playlists in In March 2019, for example, Spotify the music business, music:)ally asked a make your play? decided to add a dash of algorithmic collection of marketers and playlist experts 1 | sandbox | ISSUE 236 | 18.09.2019 COVERFEATURE outside of powering just Radio or Discover potentially lower or no engagement Weekly to broaden them out further into the beyond that? Or a lower total volume of wider ecosystem,” he says. streams initially, but a potentially greater music:)ally digital marketing coordinator chance of engagement for the song/artist Isabelle Ljungqvist agrees. “If I am looking beyond that and into the long term?” Barker at a genre playlist or a mood playlist, I don’t asks. want to listen to random stuff if I am not in On a practical level, Barker says labels discovery mode,” she says. “I want to listen will also have to stay on top of which to music that I recognise; but I want it to playlists are personalised and which aren’t. be this specific thing. And I don’t want to This could mean an added headache to an spend time making my own playlist. So, as a already hefty workload and a new layer of consumer, I feel that is really valuable.” complexity to a marketing mix that is already Happy consumers, in turn, mean better fiendishly complicated. engagement and longer session times on It is worth mentioning that Spotify has Spotify, which should keep the streaming already addressed one potential problem of service pleased – even if there may be the these new playlists – namely how artists can risk of an increased echo chamber effect in share a playlist that they might not appear the greater use of algorithms. on for all users. The company has created In announcing the move on its artists unique links to these playlists via Spotify for blog, Spotify said that the mix would Artists and Spotify Analytics for artists to give music “a better chance of getting in share. This means that any user who clicks front of the right listeners”, claiming that a unique link shared by an artist will see a personalised editorial playlists increase the personalised version of the playlist with that number of artists featured on playlists by artist’s track as the first song. how playlists are evolving on Spotify and 30% and the number of songs listeners are assume is true about how personalised Apple Music and what the impact of this discovering by 35%. “We found that, after playlists work – the pool of tracks changes Take enhance on me evolution will be on their marketing plans. discovering a song through a personalised from, let’s say, 60 tracks before it was editorial playlist, the number of listeners personalised to a few hundred now, then Spotify’s ‘Enhanced Album’ playlists – which The personal (in playlists) who then seek out the track on their own the algorithm will serve you the most allow select artists to create bespoke is political for repeat listens is up by 80%,” it added. “In appropriate 60 of those few hundred – playlists around album releases, including fact, the average number of times a listener inevitably that means, where there videos and visual content – received a more Spotify’s decision to mix human-generated saves a track is up 66%.” used to be 60 places for artists, there are muted response. music:)ally marketing playlists with algorithms, primarily among That’s not quite the whole story, though. now 400.” executive Marlen Hüllbrock believes that the ‘moods and moments’ lists, received a largely Barker says the introduction of personalised The flip side is that, as not all users feature will help to add all-important context favourable response. Justin Barker, director editorial playlists could be regarded as “a are getting the same 60 songs, the total to digital music. “Having something to of streaming strategy at [PIAS], feels the double-edged sword for labels”. volume of streams for one track will interact with, something visual, something move makes a lot of sense for users. “You have bigger opportunities to be presumably decrease. So it becomes an that is able to tell the story is good – so, from “Spotify has harvested quite a lot of discovered, which you have to say is a good almost-existential question for labels that perspective, it is worth it,” she says. information on its users, especially those thing,” he argues. and artists, according to Barker: “What is On the other hand, Ljungqvist argues who have used the platform for a long time “ Playlists primarily exist, from a better: a greater volume of – possibly ‘dry’ that this could actually detract from the – and it makes sense for them to re-purpose label point of view, to facilitate but still revenue-generating – streams listening experience. “There is a study some of their personalisation algorithms discovery of your artists. If what we in the short term for a song but with from Vevo which said that if people are 2 | sandbox | ISSUE 236 | 18.09.2019 COVERFEATURE consuming music on YouTube, they don’t the role of playlists and get people to be want to hear even a little cut to the music more creative and to think how we get when people are talking. They prefer potential fans to listen to artists’ music pseudo videos. And doesn’t the playlist in other ways without having to rely on experience operate in a similar space to editorial support,” says Donoghue. “We have that?” she says. “Isn’t it annoying? If you all heard the [figure of] 40,000 songs a day just want to consume music, you don’t being uploaded to Spotify. Last year it was want a podcast or someone saying, ‘Hey, 20,000 songs a day; next year it might be dude’. That sounds a bit like radio or 80,000. How do you compete with that? Spotify with ads.” Spotify only has X number of What’s more, some marketers have playlists, so there are only going to questioned how new the ‘Enhanced Album’ be Y number of slots. ” concept actually is. “These kind of playlists that have Post-playlists: Scandinavia been hybrids of video, the artists talking, as a sign of things to come introducing songs; they have been around for years,” says Kieron Donoghue, founder In Scandinavia this evolution is already under of “streaming-friendly” label Humble Angel way, according to one marketing source Records. “Literally since Spotify there. He says that even the higher-profile first launched, they had a craze playlists in Scandinavia no longer deliver for artists releasing albums with streaming hits as users mature in their commentary or playlists with streaming habits. commentary as well as radio in recent months. I feel as though they – I to podcasting in a finite environment, “There is a new generation who grew shows.” don’t know if ‘taken a step back’ is the right something has to give – then the impact on up on Spotify, watching the storefront term – seem to have put priorities on other music marketing could be huge. “We are at products, pop music, EDM, all that stuff. Their Playlists give way forms of content, particularly podcasts on the stage now where podcasts are really behaviour is now changing: they are going to “podlists” the platform.” taking off, but the music industry hasn’t past the storefronts and finding what they Another marketer adds, “Spotify necessarily worked out how to capitalise on want to hear,” he says. “If you have playlists Perhaps more worrying for marketers is is certainly updating its playlists less that yet,” says music:)ally marketing and like Summer Holidays or Cuddle, it used to the notion that Spotify is actually starting frequently. There are a lot that don’t seem training manager Kushal Patel, who sees be the go-to for the music you want to play to neglect playlists in its much-heralded to get updated for a long time.