Please introduce yourself. What’s your role at Spotify? What sort of projects do you oversee?

I'm James Foley and I lead the Global Editorial Strategy team. One part of this role involves managing our global curation groups, enabling editors to speak to each other about trending releases, and ensuring they can move music around the world. Another part is plugging editorial properties into Spotify—whether that's our social equity programs like EQUAL and GLOW, or always-on programs and initiatives like Spotify Wrapped—and making sure that there's an editorial experience that meets the expectations of all those things.

What cultural moments in 2023 stood out for you? How did these play out on Spotify?

There are so many moments that we've both reflected and anticipated through Spotify's editorial playlists. The Musica Mexicana genre was one of the biggest trends in 2023. It represents a new kind of sound that's dominating global charts and is reflected in lots of different artist successes across our global flagship playlists. There have also been lots of breakout moments across dance and electronic over the last year, whether that’s Fred again…, Four Tet and Skrillex at Madison Square Garden, or Peggy Gou’s all-round domination in the summer.

K-pop is still expanding, both in North America and beyond. New groups like NewJeans and XG are positioning themselves as pop groups and that's been reflected in our global flagship K-pop ON! and Beyond. And then the surge in Afrobeats crossovers has also been interesting… The breakout of songs like Rema’s Calm Down (with Selena Gomez) dominated, and we've relaunched our flagship playlist African Heat to reflect that surge in Afrobeats music.

How does Spotify provide a unique cultural experience compared to other popular platforms? To what extent is this driven by our Gen Z listeners?

I’d say youth culture has always driven the discovery and rediscovery of popular music. On some other platforms, you get this kind of light touch or shallow discovery, whereas users of all ages come to Spotify to get a deeper understanding of a genre or its history. One example is the prevalence of 90s rave and dance sounds which have percolated through a new generation of listeners. That’s reflected both in the rediscovery of that music on Spotify and in the interpolation of it within current dance music genres. Young listeners come to Spotify playlists like planet rave and mint to understand what that sounds like and what that looks like in the new context.

How does Spotify aid in the discovery and exploration of music, whether new, old, mainstream, niche, or international?

I think it's interesting to think about what discovery looks like for younger audiences in the context of TV, film, or online trends because we’re talking about the discovery of catalog music—material that’s at least a year and a half old—for the first time. So the editorial context in which you present that shifts with the focus of the audience—maybe older users are more primed to recognise the deeper cultural meaning of a music decade, whereas a younger user might only associate it with a very specific cultural context, mood, or activity.

There’s such a strong and significant identity attached to each of Spotify’s editorial playlists, which makes it easier for brands to connect to an audience. We want to help listeners form connections with new music as a cold start—so a lot of discoveries of the latest releases come via our new music playlists like New Music Friday UK. And international music genres like Mexicana Latin and Afrobeats are discovered through the flagship playlists in those regions, as well as global playlists that now reflect that global sound.

Whether you’re searching for something that's been featured on a really popular TV show, or something that's set in the context of a particular era or a moment, there should be a Spotify playlist for that.

How does Spotify innovate in order to remain at the forefront of music & podcast culture?

With an increased choice of music, it's important that our innovation remains at the core of the product offering. In 2023 we launched AI DJ—a meeting of editorial input and machine learning to present users with music we think they’ll love. We've now built an editorial ecosystem with over 150 editors around the world making amazing playlists, applying all their cultural knowledge and audience understanding, as well as current understanding of music scenes in different regions around the world. If we meet that with the best of machine learning and AI technology, that enhances the music intelligence that Spotify can offer listeners.

What advice would you give to brands who may want to leverage Spotify to remain culturally relevant in the eyes of a younger audience?

Particularly for a younger audience, I think the “when” and the “what” is most important. A lot of marketing campaigns want to align with Spotify’s editorial playlists when they sync to important moments in a listener’s life—like a seasonal holiday linked to a seasonal playlist, or tentpole cultural moments like Pride, Black History Month, or International Women's Day—so I think it's about when that moment happens, and what content we have that offers brands the best way into that audience.

Finally, which artists or podcasts can’t you get enough of right now?

There’s an artist called Tyla who recently played a Radar event as part of our global emerging artist program, in London. Her song “Water” is incredible and encapsulates the promise of a crossover female talent from Africa, which I think is really exciting. I also love the Young Fathers album Heavy Heavy that was released last year—I’m not getting bored of that one any time soon!