Tag: anniversary

Six Artists and Podcasters Share Their Journeys Since Spotify’s Launch in India

March 29, 2022

It’s been three years since Spotify’s launch in India—a change that not only gave listeners a new way to discover music and find podcasts, but also opened the door wider for creators in the country. 

Two major elements of Spotify’s impact in India are education and amplification. We’ve held several master classes in India and have helped more than 6,000 local artists share their music and access streaming insights. We’ve also hosted workshops and mentoring programs to assist podcasters with the development and distribution of their shows. In fact, the number of podcasts created on Anchor grew 130 times from the start of 2020 till the end of last year. On the amplification side, we’ve used EQUAL, RADAR, Fresh Finds, and Spotify Singles to help Indian talent gain more visibility at home and abroad—and initiatives such as Sound Up have enabled us to elevate the voices of women podcasters in the country.

“We want creators to thrive on Spotify, and our platform and initiatives are designed with that purpose in mind,” shared Amarjit Batra, Managing Director for Spotify India. “By collaborating closely with the creator community in India, we’ve been able to grow awareness and preference for audio streaming.”

So what have the past three years been like for Indian creators? For the Record sat down with three Indian artists and three Indian podcasters to hear how they’ve found new fans and audiences.

Asees Kaur – Singer

What is your most memorable Spotify moment?

Hands down the Times Square billboard in New York. I was featured twice—first, as an EQUAL artist for “52 Gaj Ka Daman,” and then for Spotify Wrapped since I was the third-most-streamed female artist in India last year.

What’s your favorite thing about Spotify for Artists?

Having access to my own audio streaming analytics and numbers because I know they are real numbers. This helps me connect better with my fans and focus on music they love!

What are some of the ways that you engage with your fans on Spotify?

I definitely share the new songs and playlists that I featured on on my social media and link back to Spotify so my followers are up-to-date on my new releases. I also curate my own playlists with my favorite songs to share with my fans. 

What artist(s) would be your dream collaboration?

There are so many. Locally, I would like to collaborate with any regional artist or genres, and internationally, I’d love to work with Taylor Swift and Adele.

 

Armaan Malik – Singer and Songwriter

What is your most memorable Spotify moment?

I was the first Indian artist to be featured on the Spotify Times Square billboard for my debut English single, “Control.” It was a huge milestone for me and truly a spectacular moment for Indian musicians worldwide. 

What’s your favorite thing about Spotify for Artists?

I truly appreciate how in-depth the analytics are. It assists me and my team to navigate our releases strategically. Tools like the Artist Pick and Canvas really help artists push our music in the most effective way. I also love how easy it is to use the app. The user interface is extremely smooth, which is always a plus! 

What are some of the ways that you engage with your fans on Spotify? 

Personally, I love creating fun, new playlists. It enables me to reach out and engage with my fans in a much closer way. Some of these are discography playlists that allow my listeners to know more about my music across languages and genres, while the other playlists feature songs that I am hooked to currently (not just my own). 

What artist(s) would be your dream collaboration?

It’s my dream to collaborate with Charlie Puth, and I would love to do a song with Arijit Singh.

 

Nikhita Gandhi – Singer, Composer, and Songwriter

How has your career evolved since Spotify’s launch in India?

I think the business of music has become more streamlined. I am better aware of how my music is performing, able to consistently monitor the growth and progress of my art, and even personalize my artist profile almost like Instagram, but for streaming. 

What is your most memorable Spotify moment?

I was walking to a recording and stumbled upon a GIANT poster of Badshah and me on Spotify’s spotlight post for “Bad Boy X Bad Girl.” I had no idea that was happening, so it was a crazy-good surprise.

What’s your favorite thing about Spotify for Artists?

There are a few, but the prerelease pitching feature tops that list. 

What artist(s) would be your dream collaboration?

I really can’t pick one. I feel blessed to say that many of my dreams have already come true, including launching my career with Rahman Sir (AR Rahman) and the collaboration with Pink Sweat$. Can’t wait to hit more epic milestones!

 

Yogi & Kabeer – Hosts of Shuddh Desi Gay

How has your career evolved since Spotify’s launch in India?

From consuming music and podcasts on Spotify to actually hosting a Spotify Original podcast, it has been one of the most fulfilling experiences for us personally and professionally. Spotify adds credibility to our voices and gives our messages unmatched amplification. 

What is your most memorable Spotify moment?

Both of us have been using the app since its launch in India, so we can never forget the moment when we saw our podcast trending on the charts for the first time. Our listeners took screenshots and shared it on Instagram, and that was truly special. 

What are some of the ways that you engage with your fans on Spotify?

Our podcast is called Shuddh Desi Gay (SDG), so the relationship we have with our listeners is one of community. They’re our extended family, so when we created the collaborative playlist, SDG FAM, with five songs, it quickly went up to 55 hours of music, added to by over 50 listeners. Additionally, at the end of the year, Spotify Wrapped showed us how much listeners loved us, and we could share that back with them. 

Who are your dream guests for your podcast?

Comedian Ellen DeGenres and Indian filmmaker Karan Johar.

 

Balaji Patturaj – Host of Naallanaa Murukku – The RJ Balaji Podcast

How has your career evolved since Spotify’s launch in India? 

Being a radio jockey for the past 15 years made me realize that I’ve become a better person, and it reflects in whatever I do. Over the years, I’ve been able to easily connect with the radio audiences and today’s internet generation. Through Spotify, I continue to evolve and feel relevant as the younger generation listens to my podcast. It’s a great feeling to be connected with different audiences through different mediums.

What is your most memorable Spotify moment?

This might sound weird, but after every episode I get so many heartwarming messages. Messages from people who lost their dear ones to COVID or texts from somebody who is going through a tough time physically, mentally, or financially—mentioning how a particular episode made them feel better. I feel fortunate that people are able to take so much from our podcast. What I thought to be mere entertainment for 15 minutes turned out to be something more and bigger. Those stories, those life-changing moments and the impact we made, are the most memorable parts of my journey with Spotify. 

What’s your favorite thing about working with Spotify?

My favorite thing is to be able to work with the best in business. Best in the business does not just mean how big the brand is, or how well Spotify values creators, but how much they care about the medium. Spotify knows how to handle a podcast, how to promote it, how to take it to the target audience, and how to work with talent. All these things make Spotify’s working environment a really cool one. I always have a good time while discussing show ideas with the Spotify team. They know the medium and they strive to give their best to their listeners. 

Who are your dream guests for your podcast?

One person I want to be on my podcast is Tamil superstar Rajinikanth. Apart from his films, his stardom, and his philosophical thoughts, the man has a great life we can all learn so much from. I would like to talk to him about the stories that he hasn’t yet shared with the world. A global guest I would like to have on my show would be Barack Obama. At a time like this where most people have negative opinions on world leaders, Obama is still loved by the majority, and that’s a story worth telling.

 

Ananthi Iyappan – Host of The Book Show & Rough Note by RJ Ananthi

How has your career evolved since Spotify’s launch in India?

We have more listeners now than ever before, and we regularly receive messages from so many people that they loved our podcast on Spotify. We have been able to reach so many people outside India through Spotify, and I feel so much gratitude for that.

What is your most memorable Spotify moment?

Being signed on as a Spotify Exclusive was very special to me because it took me back to those days when I used to do my podcast inside a cupboard for better acoustics. Spotify is the only audio streaming platform that recognized the effort behind the content I was creating, and they have supported me right from the beginning.

What are some of the ways that you engage with your fans on Spotify? 

We redirect our social media followers to Spotify at the end of every episode’s promotion. We also encourage our fans to listen to our episodes even if they don’t have enough time to watch our episodes. We also encourage anyone who comes up with an idea for their own podcast.

 

Want to learn more about how listeners are streaming podcasts in India? Check some of the top trends we’re seeing in the country.

Spotify Celebrates 10 Years in Germany

March 11, 2022

It’s been 10 years since Spotify first launched in Germany, and what a decade it’s been. In that time, German listeners have streamed music on Spotify more than 450 billion times. There have been plenty of local picks available for fans, too, as more than 150,000 German-language artists are on the platform.

But music isn’t the only reason Germans flock to Spotify. Podcasts are very popular in this market, with more than 70,000 German-language pods on Spotify. And here’s a fun fact: from January 2017 to December 2021, German listeners streamed 1.3 billion hours of podcasts on our platform. 

“Being able to listen to your favorite music anytime, anywhere, and completely legally was one of the main objectives when Spotify was founded in 2006. Between the launch in March 2012 and February 2022, listeners in Germany streamed 310 million personalized playlists, thus creating their own personal audio moments,” shared Michael Krause, General Manager Europe at Spotify. “All in all, we are pleased with the positive growth of Spotify in the German market to date and also look forward to continuing to shape the future of audio with innovations and content.”

To celebrate the decade, we’re taking a look back at some of the major moments the German market has experienced.

Tune in to these highlights for listeners

  • September 2013: We launched Spotify Connect, allowing listeners to stream across multiple devices like their TV, gaming console, or speakers.
  • September 2014: Spotify Premium Family became available for family members living under the same roof.
  • July 2015: The first personalized playlist called Your Mix of the Week debuted.
  • December 2015: Spotify started sharing its annual Wrapped review of the top lists of the most successful artists, songs, and albums worldwide while also giving users insights into their very individual listening behavior.
  • May 2016: Fest & Flauschig, the first-ever worldwide Spotify podcast, launched.
  • October 2019: Daily Drive, the first playlist to combine podcasts and music, became available for listeners. 
  • November 2021: The Lyrics feature, which displays in-app song lyrics, rolled out for listeners.

Showing support for German creators

It’s a priority for Spotify to work with emerging talent and amplify their music and podcasts to reach new audiences. Sound Up, Spotify’s podcast education program for underrepresented creators, was launched in Germany in 2019. RADAR, Spotify’s emerging artist program debuted in 2020, and EQUAL, Spotify’s program to foster equity for women in the music and audio space, got its start in 2021.

Ten years of top songs, podcasts, and trends

  • The most-streamed song was “Roller” by Apache 207, followed by Tones And I’s “Dance Monkey” and The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights.” 
  • Hip-hop held a solid place in listeners’ earbuds as CRO was the most-streamed artist in 2012, and Bonez MC claimed the top artist spot in 2021.
  • In 2018, Fest & Flauschig, the first Spotify Exclusive podcast, took the spot of the most-streamed podcast globally.
  • In Berlin, listeners streamed a particularly high volume of music in 2021. The capital city ranked first among German cities where the most music was streamed on Spotify last year. 
  • On December 24, 2021, a new record was set: it was the day the most music was streamed on Spotify in Germany since 2012.
  • Favorite genres didn’t change much over the years; pop music was the most popular genre in 2012 and it remained so in 2021.
  • Podcasts are as popular as ever: more than half of the 18- to 24-year-olds in Germany regularly stream podcasts. Among 25- to 34-year-olds, the figure is over 40%.

 

To learn more about this decade of streaming decadence, grab your party hat and head on over to Spotify Germany’s 10th Anniversary website.

Spotify’s Spice Bus Tours London to Celebrate 25 Years of the Spice Girls

September 24, 2021

2021 marks the 25th anniversary of the one and only Spice Girls. Their debut, and most-streamed track of all time, “Wannabe,” made waves and started a global “girl power” revolution unlike anything the music and pop culture industry had witnessed before—one that still inspires and encourages young girls of today. On Spotify, 18- to 24-year-olds stream the Spice Girls the most, showcasing how their music has the ability to inspire a new generation.

To celebrate a quarter-century of one of the most popular girl bands across the world, this past weekend Spotify recreated the iconic Spice Bus from the Spice World film and took fans on a zig-zagging journey: a Spice Girls’ tour across London.

The Spice Girls Continue to Find Fans 25 Years After Their Hit ‘Wannabe’

July 8, 2021

In July of 1996, the Spice Girls burst onto the music scene with their platform heels, Union Jack clothing, and their single “Wannabe.” Their lyrics of female empowerment made waves and started a global “girl power” revolution unlike anything the music and pop culture industry had witnessed before, with a lasting impact ever since.

So to celebrate the anniversary of their debut hit, on July 9 the Spice Girls will be releasing an EP, Wannabe 25, that includes a demo of the original single, a remix by Junior Vasquez, and a new ballad called “Feed Your Love.”

On the platform, Spotify’s celebrating the occasion with This Is Spice Girls, the ultimate destination for fans of the girl group. There, listeners will find a new long-form version of the “Wannabe” music video that’s exclusive to Spotify. The playlist also includes new storylines from the band, where they share details on their biggest hits.

Spotify may not have been around during the group’s ’90s inception, but that doesn’t mean fans aren’t listening to their music on the platform two decades later. In fact, “Wannabe” has been streamed more than 590 million times on Spotify, with listeners in the United States streaming the most, followed by Germany and the U.K. 

“We continue to see a huge number of streams daily for their music, ranging from the songs we all know and love, such as “Wannabe,” “Stop,” and “Spice Up Your Life,” to niche releases that only a die-hard fan would play on repeat,” shares Sulinna Ong, Head of Music at Spotify U.K. and Ireland. “They truly changed the pop landscape forever, giving women a voice in the industry and giving fans the confidence to be their true selves.’’

Music from the Spice Girls has also found a home on millions of user-generated playlists—20 million, to be exact. As to the age of those streaming the British pop sensation’s tracks on Spotify? You may be surprised to learn that 18-to-24-year-olds are the ones streaming the Spice Girls’ music most (despite being born after the group’s first single was released).

Remarking on this, the band said, “Spice Girls has always been about unity and inclusion, and it makes us so proud that after 25 years our music is still inspiring a whole new generation. Thanks to Spotify for keeping us connected to our fans around the world. Streaming has been a huge part of keeping our music alive and it’s amazing that so many people around the world listen to us on Spotify.”

For fans looking to dive a little deeper into the archives, there’s plenty of podcast content on Spotify that offers a glimpse into the lives and minds of Sporty, Baby, Ginger, Scary, and Posh Spice. The WANNABE podcast shares insights into where the famous five are now, and how their careers progressed since their time in one of the world’s most famous girl bands. BBC’s Raw, a podcast that curates “rare and newly discovered interviews,” released an episode that highlights sound clips from the group members from 1996 and 1998.

Whether you want to practice the dance moves to “Stop” or hear the WANNABE podcast cohosts discuss Melanie C’s single “Who I Am,” there’s plenty of Spice on Spotify. 

Revisit the Spice Girls’ catalogue and sing along to your favorite girl power anthem below. 

Celebrating One Year of Spotify Lite

September 8, 2020

A year ago, we unveiled Spotify Lite, a small, fast, and simplified version of our app. It was built from the ground up based on user feedback from around the world, and has allowed millions of listeners in areas with limited bandwidth and phone storage to enjoy audio wherever they are. And as our users globally have found, though the app is lite, it’s just as loud.

In the 12 months since launch, listeners around the world have enjoyed and discovered thousands of new artists and podcasts—while easily controlling their data and storage. But where have fans been streaming from Spotify Lite the most, and what have they been streaming?

Since July 2019, we found that our listeners in Brazil have listened to the most music using Lite, out of all 37 markets with the app.* They’re followed by Mexico, India, Indonesia, and Argentina.

Even though some Lite users are on opposite sides of the world, they share some interesting listening patterns. For one, Mondays and Sundays are the top days for streaming, and lunch is the most common time to listen to music and podcasts.

Take a look at what they’re listening to:

Top Tracks

  1. “Señorita” – Camila Cabello, Shawn Mendes
  2. “Dance Monkey” – Tones And I
  3. “Tusa” – KAROL G, Nicki Minaj
  4. “China” – Anuel AA, Daddy Yankee, J Balvin, KAROL G, Ozuna
  5. “LA CANCIÓN” – Bad Bunny, J Balvin

Top Podcasts

  1. PODKESMAS (PODCAST KESEHATAN MASYARAKAT)
  2. Rintik Sedu
  3. Do You See What I See?
  4. NerdCast
  5. Kajian Hanan Attaki

Indonesia clearly had a great year for podcasts, with the market’s PODKESMAS, Rintik Sedu, and Do You See What I See all in the top five of the most streamed.

Plus, with a new year comes new growth—or rather, a reduction. Although the app was already small—only 10 MB when it came out of beta in 2019—we’ve been able to reduce the Lite app download size by an additional 15%.** This saves even more space on listeners’ phones while offering more than 60 million tracks and 1.5 million podcasts, regardless of network connectivity, data plan, and whether or not they have the latest phone.

The Spotify Lite app can be downloaded separately from the main Spotify app, and is available for both Free and Spotify Premium users. Use it alongside or independently from the main Spotify app on all Android phones running version 4.3 or higher.

*Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Uruguay, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, Oman, Jordan, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, South Africa, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, India.

**App download size can vary depending on phone types.

Spotify Users Have Spent Over 2.3 Billion Hours Streaming Discover Weekly Playlists Since 2015

July 9, 2020

Discover Weekly, your weekly mixtape of fresh music, is celebrating an anniversary—five years of discovery this July. But the beloved playlist has humble origins, initially starting as an idea at Spotify’s annual Hack Week. Since then, it’s become known as one of our flagship offerings, was parodied on April Fools (2019’s Disco Cover Weekly, anyone?), and has introduced our Spotify users to some of their new favorite artists.


In the five years since its launch, listeners have also streamed endless hours of the Discover Weekly playlist—over 2.3 billion hours between July 2015 and June 25, 2020 For the numerically inclined, that’s more than:

  • 8.4 trillion seconds
  • 140 billion minutes
  • 2.3 billion hours
  • 97.3 million days
  • 13.9 million weeks
  • 266.5 thousand years

For context: That’s longer than human civilization has been around! 

Since the playlist updates every Monday with new music based on your personal listening habits, it leads users to find new artists, tracks, and hits to fall in love with. The Moroccan-Dutch DJ R3HAB is the most “discovered” artist in the most markets—16, to be exact—meaning users across those countries streamed him the most out of any other creator on their Discover Weekly playlist. 

“I love how Spotify allows my music to connect with people across so many cultures,” R3HAB told For the Record. “I’ve always considered myself a world artist and it’s amazing to see my music truly traveling. Spotify has broken down the geographical boundaries of music discovery, allowing people from all over to discover my music as soon as it’s released. Thank you, Discover Weekly.”

Halsey takes the spot for most discovered female artist globally. Notably, she released her first album, Badlands, in 2015—the same year Discover Weekly was created! Now, she’s included on the list of Top Streamed Female Artists on Spotify.

U.S. listeners stream Discover Weekly the most, and have spent a lot of time “discovering” music from RAC and Khalid. In the U.K. listeners have found Detroit-born house producer MK, and German DJ Alle Farben racks up the streams in his home country. And they’re discovering artists across genres too—everything from EDM to grupera (a regional Mexican style), to indietronica and Lithuanian folk.

With so much discovery in such a short span of time, (you know, compared to the entirety of human civilization), we can’t wait to see what the next five years will bring for this star playlist.

3 Major Streaming Trends from Spotify’s First Year in India

February 27, 2020

It’s been exactly 12 months since Spotify launched in India, and my, how we’ve grown. There are now more than 6,400 Indian creators using Spotify for Artists, our platform that lets artists and their teams see who’s listening to their music and take control of their artist profile. Listeners from over 2,300 cities are tuning into more than 350 curated playlists in India—like New Music Hindi and Punjabi 101—and that’s up from 120 at launch. In honor of this anniversary, we dove into some of the trends and themes around a year’s worth of Spotify streaming in India. Here’s what we saw:

1. A lot of love for local artists

Spotify listeners in India have streamed over 130 artists each in the past year. Overall, we found that the top five most-streamed in the country are from India. Topping the list are three beloved Bollywood singers: Arijit Singh, Tanishk Bagchi, and Neha Kakkar. The age group of 35 to 44-year-olds stream Indian artists at a higher rate than any other.

Globally streamed hits are also very popular in India. The most-streamed international artist in India is Post Malone, who was also Spotify’s most-streamed global artist in 2019; BTS and Taylor Swift are popular with Indian listeners as well. The most-streamed track in India over the past year is the global smash “Señorita” by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello, followed by Arijit Singh and Mithoon’s “Tujhe Kitna Chahne Lage” and Sachet Tandon and Parampara Thakur’s “Bekhayali” (both from the soundtrack to the popular Indian film “Kabir Singh”).

2. Music sets the mood

Love songs are a major part of Indian culture, which is why Spotify’s Bollywood Mush playlist is one of the top-streamed playlists among users. Interestingly, listeners in the eastern part of the country—West Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Assam, Bihar, and Sikkim—have streamed the playlist the most (it seems love rises in the east!).

What’s more, during Diwali, India’s biggest religious celebration, the holiday’s themed playlists—which lean heavily on songs about love and partying—got major traction on the festival’s peak day on October 27, 2019, with plays increasing by almost 4,400%.

 3. Pressing play on podcasts and pop

India has fired up its podcast lineup, launching its first three Spotify original podcasts in December 2019. 22 Yarns With Gaurav Kapur, Bhaskar Bose, and Love Aaj Kal with Aastha & Ankit were each produced in India to cater to an Indian audience. These podcasts, which are all about pop culture, including cricket, fiction thriller storytelling, and relationship advice, respectively, also made it to the top five on the original podcast charts. 

The top three music genres streamed across India are pop, filmi (music from popular Indian movies) and hip-hop. K-Pop also has a growing fan base: Spotify’s most-followed K-Pop playlist, K-Pop Daebak, is a popular choice for Indian listeners. And India is in the top 22% of K-Pop listening in all of Spotify’s markets globally, based on streaming from the past 90 days. 

From the top-streamed artists to the most popular podcasts in India, see how listening stacks up since we launched in February 2019.

Download the infographic here.

For the uninitiated, be sure to stream Spotify’s Top Hits Hindi playlist. 

A Look Inside Madonna’s R&B-Influenced Sixth Album, ‘Bedtime Stories’

October 30, 2019

By the time 1994 rolled around, Madonna had been in the spotlight for more than a decade. She’d established her signature pop-centric sound across five albums and developed a riotous persona people couldn’t resist. Then at the peak of her fame she upended expectations by tucking listeners into a chilled-out, sumptuous bed on her sixth album, Bedtime Stories. Unlike previous releases, the album reveled in the downtempo, taking cues from the brooding R&B and hip-hop that was ruling the pop charts at the time.  

It was a sonic retrenching for Madonna and it represented a new, softer path forward for the singer. “There’s lots of ways to get your point across,” Madonna told The New York Times in a 1994 interview. “You can be aggressive and loud, and you can shock people, and you can hit them over the head. But then there are other ways. You can subliminally seduce someone.”

Madonna’s piercing soprano, which had sliced through the chaos of the vibrant world of ’80s and early ’90s pop, is subdued for much of Bedtime Stories. This shift is particularly evident on “Love Tried to Welcome Me,” which is dominated by sweeping strings and Spanish guitars, and “Secret,” which spins strummed acoustic riffing into a slow funk jam. The latter, which was produced by Dallas Austin and uses wah-wah guitars and icy strings to ramp up the tension, hints at the directions she’d take on later mood music pieces like “Frozen” and “Medellín.”

Bedtime Stories gets its most spirited with “Human Nature.” The track’s G-funk synths act as a springboard for Madonna’s stark, “step off” message to naysayers. The acerbic song—co-produced by Madonna and R&B hitmaker Dave Hall—was accompanied by a minimalist music video that made physical its lyrical themes of feeling repressed by society.

“It’s my definitive statement in regards to the incredible payback I’ve received,” Madonna told the Los Angeles Times in 1994. “It is defensive, absolutely. But it’s also sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek. And I’m not sorry. I do not apologize for any of it.” Madonna’s performance of “Human Nature” on her Madame X tour—the only Bedtime Stories song to be included on the intimate shows’ setlists so far—makes its connection to current pop manifestos, like Taylor Swift‘s “The Man,” even more obvious.  

Bedtime Stories closes with “Take A Bow,” a gorgeous ballad cowritten with and featuring the vocals of Babyface. It’s regarded by many as one of Madonna’s best vocal performances, and it served as a reminder to listeners that Madonna reached her level of pop music stardom in large part because of her ability to emote. It wound up being Madonna’s first U.S. chart-topper since 1992’s “This Used to Be My Playground,” and it set the table for Something to Remember, her first greatest-hits collection to focus on ballads, to come out in 1995—yet another opportunity for Madonna to refashion her image in public and on record.

Celebrate the 25th anniversary of Madonna’s Bedtime Stories.

How Counting Crows’ Sleeper Debut Album Helped Define a New Era of ‘90s Rock

September 18, 2019

In 1993, Bay Area folk-rockers Counting Crows released their epochal first album, August and Everything After, but it didn’t land on the charts until the following January. Looking back 25 years later, the remarkable thing is not that the Crows took so long to gain traction, but that they cracked the top of the charts that grunge acts like Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, and Pearl Jam had dominated for so long.

Fronted by the dreadlocked and endearingly nerdy Adam Duritz, Counting Crows couldn’t have been further removed from the primal roar of Generation Grunge. While most of the era’s big bands sounded like they’d stolen the Black Sabbath and Black Flag records from their older siblings’ collections, the Crows seemed like they’d gone straight for their parents’ classic-rock stash. References to Bob Dylan, The Band, The Byrds, and Van Morrison were tossed around repeatedly when music critics started reaching for comparisons. And while the Crows were just as enamored with and influenced by more contemporary bands like R.E.M., the boomer-friendly analogies weren’t entirely off-base. It’s tough not to call to mind Van Morrison’s “Brown-Eyed Girl,” when Duritz lays into that sha-la-la refrain on the album’s first single, “Mr. Jones.” 

Despite the album coming out in September, that single wasn’t released until December, making the Crows’ success a slow burn. Of course, once “Mr. Jones” was released, that Morrison-esque hook helped drive the tune all the way to No. 5. And by the time ’94 rolled around, the momentum propelled August and Everything After high into the charts too, where it reached No. 4 and eventually turned platinum seven times over.

Photos by Danny Clinch

Ironically, the very song that made the Crows bona fide rock stars is a wary examination of some musicians’ motivation for seeking stardom. But that coincidence probably made it go down easy in the irony-intensive ’90s. Plus, a major part of the band’s appeal right from the get-go was Duritz’s tendency to skeptically view the world like a giant Rubik’s Cube that he confronted colorblind. He plowed the hypersensitive-artist furrow for all it was worth, and it worked because it wasn’t a put-on.

The second single from the album, “Round Here,” is loaded with dramatic atmosphere and vivid storytelling, coming off like a moodier, folkier answer to Springsteen‘s “Thunder Road.” It wasn’t as ubiquitous a hit as its predecessor, but when the band played it on Saturday Night Live in ’94, the simultaneously hypnotic and jittery tale of a woman who “has trouble acting normal when she’s nervous” let an even larger number of the Crows’ fellow misfits know somebody was speaking their language.

Other artists were paying attention too, and over the next few years, Counting Crows’ success—built largely on their milestone debut—helped carve a path through the dense forest of grunge for other groups to follow. Would bands like Train, The Wallflowers, or even Hootie & The Blowfish become as big as they did in the mid-to-late ’90s had the twinkling arpeggios, male sensitivity, and classic-rock redux vibes of August and Everything After not made for such a monster hit? Maybe, but it sure seems a lot less likely. Someone had to get people past grunge, and Counting Crows, with their tendency towards emotional processing and pathological over-thinking, ended up being the new era’s perfect shepherd. 

Hear the album that influenced an entire wing of ‘90s rock.

Fierce Country Women in Charge of Their Destiny—Twenty Years of Dixie Chicks’ ‘Fly’

August 30, 2019

On August 31, 1999, the Dixie Chicks doubled down on their iconoclastic country stance with their second major-label album, Fly. The full-length won the trio—Natalie Maines, Emily Strayer, and Martie Maguire—a Grammy Award for Country Album of the Year and spawned eight country singles, including two No. 1 hits, “Cowboy Take Me Away” and “Without You.”

Unsurprisingly, Fly also became one of country music’s best-selling albums ever. In 2002, it was certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America® (RIAA) for 10 million copies shipped—a total surpassed only by the Dixie Chicks’ own 12-times-platinum previous album, 1998’s Wide Open Spaces. Streaming-wise, Fly also dominates, having been streamed over 132 million times.

Twenty years later, Fly feels even more radical and urgent than it did upon release. That’s largely due to the album’s lyrics, which star women in control of their lives and destinies who aren’t letting anything—or anyone—get in their way.

“Let Him Fly” is about knowing when to let a romantic partner go because a relationship has run its course. “Don’t Waste Your Heart” establishes that even starting a partnership is futile (“my heart can’t compromise”), while “Some Days You Gotta Dance” encourages women to shake off concerns (e.g., inappropriate bosses, commitment issues) with some stress-relieving body moving.

Of course, Fly’s protagonists aren’t immune to being knocked down by a failed relationship; the fiddle-heavy waltz “Hello Mr. Heartache” is self-explanatory, while “Without You” is a cry-in-your-whiskey ballad about heartbreak. However, Fly‘s characters also don’t suffer fools gladly: The album’s most notorious song is “Goodbye Earl,” a modern murder ballad that finds a pair of best friends conspiring to off an abusive husband using poisoned black-eyed peas.

Although the latter tune caused controversy at country radio, the Dixie Chicks revealed in interviews that their record label had far more issues with the feminist-leaning anthem “Sin Wagon.” The lively bluegrass tune concerns a newly single woman unabashedly sowing her oats—or, as the song goes, doing “a little mattress dancin’/That’s right, I said mattress dancin’.”

“Since we have sold so many records, one of the good things that comes out of that is we have lots of control,” Natalie Maines told USA Today in August 1999. “So we said, ‘There’s 13 songs on the record. You can like 12 of them, and we’ll like the other one.'”

Music-wise, Fly found the Dixie Chicks becoming more resolute about foregrounding their bluegrass and classic country roots—another bold move, given that the album emerged during a time when mainstream music was more welcoming than ever to pop-leaning country artists such as Shania Twain and Faith Hill.

Appropriately, however, Fly captures many moods. Kicky fiddle and twangy guitars dominate brisker songs, highlighted by the hip-shaking “Some Days You Gotta Dance” (featuring bluesy guitar from pre-superstardom Keith Urban), which is then balanced out by the keening pedal steel and melting multipart harmonies of “Cold Day in July” and “Ready to Run.” And on Fly, Natalie Maines’ Texas-bred holler sounds confident and versatile. It’s wild and untamed on “Hole in My Head” and “Sin Wagon” and tender on the string-swept “Without You” and wistful “Cowboy Take Me Away.”

Despite its straightforward classic country tones, time has proven Fly to be suitable for genre crossover covers. “Goodbye Earl” was once given a punk makeover by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, while boygenius, an indie-rock supergroup featuring Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker, and Phoebe Bridgers, redid the optimistic “Cowboy Take Me Away“ as a longing love song.

Fly‘s DNA is also omnipresent in today’s country music. The all-women supergroup Highwomen exudes the ladies-first, us-against-the-world stance favored by the Dixie Chicks. Cam is making unabashedly feminist country music on her own terms, while Miranda Lambert—both solo and with her own straight-talking trio, Pistol Annies—is building an arsenal of songs cataloging life’s ebbs and flows from the perspective of a firebrand woman uninterested in conforming to stereotypes. Plus, the withering, take-no-prisoners attitude of “Goodbye Earl” shows up in spades in Kacey Musgraves‘ “High Horse,” a deceptively bubbly disco-pop song about deflating the ego of an overly confident man.

The Fly era of Dixie Chicks also made an impression on Taylor Swift, a longtime fan of the band, who recently told Entertainment Weekly she was inspired by Fly‘s overall “aesthetics” and appreciated how Dixie Chicks were creating music in “an unapologetically feminine, imaginative way”—a descriptor that just so happens to describe the pop superstar’s own catalog and shows how far Fly’s influence stretches. It wasn’t just the classic country fans who embraced the album: it was the rockers and pop stars and loads of inspired women in between.

Step into your boots and revisit the Dixie Chicks’ 1999 album Fly.

Blastoff Songs to Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing

July 15, 2019

There are more than 185,000 tracks on Spotify with “Moon” in the title—any of which are appropriate to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. On July 15, we’re queueing up the most popular of these “Moon” tunes, alongside some illuminating insights from NASA on how music is enjoyed in space. Songs like “Talking to the Moon” by Bruno Mars and Frank Sinatra’s iconic duet with Count Basie “Fly Me To The Moon (In Other Words)” are among the lunar tunes listeners love most. 

David Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream” and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising” are among listeners’ favorites, in addition to R.E.M.’s “Man On The Moon.” The list features several tunes titled “Moonlight,” including ones from Ariana Grande and Grace VanderWaal. 

According to NASA, it was customary for flight crews to be roused with wake-up songs played from Mission Control—tunes alluding to space or the sun rising were common choices. Along with being music lovers, quite a few astronauts also possess musical skill—and have even demonstrated it by rocketing instruments into space. Yet mastery of music in orbit is an even greater challenge than down on Earth.

“Playing a guitar without gravity is…messy,” says retired Canadian astronaut and former commander of the International Space Station, Colonel Chris Hadfield. “There’s nothing to hold it on your knee, or to suspend it by the strap, so it floats free, and every time you move your hands it wants to take off. I eventually learned to pinch it against my chest with my right bicep to hold it still. Even still, accurate picking was hard, and the muscle memory up and down the fretboard was wrong without the arm’s weight, so I overshot.”

Looking Back on a Year of For the Record

April 2, 2019

This month, For the Record turns one year old. We couldn’t have gotten to this milestone without support from you, our readers. To mark the occasion, we’re taking a look back at some of our favorite stories—and some of yours.

Take a walk down memory lane or check out a piece you might have missed.

Rosalía’s Flamenco-Inspired Sound Is Rooted in Tradition, but Fearlessly New

Rosalía, a twenty-five-year-old Barcelona native, is combining traditional flamenco and modern beats to make a sound all her own. We sat down with the artist on the heels of her “De Mi Nombre” single drop. Since then, she’s released her second, wildly acclaimed album, El Mal Querer, and her star is only getting brighter.

EQL Resident Roundtable: Meet the Women Behind the Mixers

The EQL Residency was created to help aspiring female and non-binary engineers gain the experience and mentorship needed to take their careers to the next level. We went behind the mic—and the mixer—with the first three members of our EQL Residency to learn a little about their work. Stay tuned for applications for our next cohort.

The Top Songs, Artists, Playlists, and Podcasts of 2018

Our readers tuned in en masse to take a look at the world’s top artists, genres, songs, and playlists for 2018. Be sure to check out some surprising stats—like which age group is the most chill—and some classics, like the year’s top throwback songs. And don’t worry: December 2019, in all its Wrapped glory, will be here before you know it.

Audio First by Daniel Ek

In February our CEO, Daniel Ek, shared our goal of becoming the world’s number-one audio platform and the addition of podcasting companies Anchor and Gimlet. On the heels of those acquisitions, we announced that Spotify also acquired Parcast.

Nadia Dies. Nadia Lives. ‘Gotta Get Up’ Plays. Users Repeat.

We noticed that the late Harry Nilsson’s “Gotta Get Up” was playing in (almost) every episode of Netflix’s Russian Doll. It turns out that fans were also streaming the song on repeat. Check out the soundtrack, or, namely, the “theme song” to see if you think it’s as catchy too.

4 Questions (and Answers) with Amarjit Batra, Managing Director, Spotify India

India is the most recent addition to the seventy-nine markets that can now enjoy Spotify, following our thirteen new market launches in the Middle East and South Africa. Opening in this region helps us bring the music of artists around the globe to over a billion people and exposes Indian artists from multiple genres to the rest of the world.

And there’s plenty more where that came from. Here’s to another year of discovery!