Meet the woman who curates the music you love aka Senior Manager Editorial Rutaba Yaqub of Spotify!
Please tell us a little about Spotify, the songs that are available on the platform and the playlists. How are the playlists curated?
Answer: Spotify is one of the largest music streaming platforms in the world. With 80 million tracks and 489 million users spread across more than 180 countries, the app has a substantial footprint in the global music landscape. The app has thousands of playlists that are both editorial and user-generated providing a carefully curated as well as personalized experience for listeners around the world. Spotify has become a household name since its launch in 2008 and the brand name resonates with people of all ages who enjoy music on-the-go.
As for playlist curation, we utilize listenership data that is generated from the millions of users streaming their favorite tracks on the app. We pick up genres, artists and other musical preferences, analyze them, and sort the relevant tracks into a single hub. This allows our listeners to enjoy the most tasteful and customized collection of music that they love, in a single playlist to stream on repeat.
There are three categories under which playlists at Spotify fall. These include ‘Made by Editors’, “Made for You’ and ‘Made by You’. The purpose and philosophy behind how they are curated is evident from their names and each serves a unique goal of allowing listeners to find music that they like in one place. Placements on our editorial playlists are driven by a combination of the cultural knowledge, passion, and expertise of our editorial teams, and the variety of data insights we gather from Spotify’s audience. The playlists generated by the app for listeners are based on user data that goes through our algorithms to deliver tailor made hubs for every listener based on their taste profile.
Every playlist has its own base criteria. In Pakistan for instance, there are close to 90 editorial playlists which include Pakka Hit Hai, Pakistani Hip Hop, Pakistani Indie 101, and South Asian Sufi along with many more. Each of these collections is unique as it offers a wide range of trending and evergreen melodies all in one place for listeners to enjoy.
Placements on our editorial playlists are driven by a combination of the cultural knowledge, passion, and expertise of our editorial teams, and the variety of data insights we gather from Spotify’s audience. Crucially, music submitted via the playlist submission tool is the starting point for all songs, and Global Curation Groups, which are tapped into the latest trends and discussion points, can also determine the outcomes of where a song’s journey continues in the editorial ecosystem.
Are Spotify playlists driven by fans or artists?
The majority of Spotify streams come from active streams, where fans are seeking out the music they want to hear by visiting album pages, artists profiles, or liked songs. This also includes streams from listener playlists. These can help signal to Spotify (and to other fans) that we should be paying attention to a particular song or artist. Artists can also engage fans by creating playlists that feature their music, or tracks by other like-minded artists that they’ve worked with and are inspired by. This can not only help to catch the eye of editors when they’re looking at streaming data, but could also lead to visibility on other artists’ profiles.
Spotify playlists are timeless. They are composed of the hottest tracks of the moment, as well as classics from the past. That’s because catalog music—or music that is more than 18 months old—maintains a large presence on Spotify. According to our Catalog Fan Study, roughly 75% of active streams consist of catalog music. Furthermore, catalog music has become increasingly popular with younger audiences who are discovering artists from previous generations for the first time. While artists can’t pitch catalog music, our editors are always looking at the data to see if a catalog song is a good fit for one of our editorial playlists. And if an artist’s catalog song happens to go viral on a playlist, the benefits are sizable: On average, artists can see a 70% jump in streams for the rest of their music. As you can see, playlists are vital to how fans connect with new artists and how artists engage those new fans. And we’ll continue to use our ecosystem of playlists to support artists as their musical journey unfolds.
Spotify recently did a gig on Pakistan’s flagship playlist ‘Pakka Hit Hai’, can you tell us more about it?
Answer: The Pakka Hit Hai playlist, as the name indicates, is a signature offering from Spotify where at any given time, you can find the most viral local tracks in one destination. Based on whatever our listeners are eagerly streaming on the app, this hub is curated and personalized accordingly. Since this is one of our most popular playlists, we wanted to celebrate the love that it has been receiving from listeners, with the listeners! This is why we took the initiative of hosting this ‘Pakka Hit Hai’ gig, which is the first among a series of events to be hosted across the country. We invited Abdul Hannan and Taha G, two notable musicians who rose to prominence recently, to enthrall audiences and add some glitter to this amazing event, and because both artists and their songs are featured in this flagship playlist as well.
The gig was an opportunity not just for the fans to experience their favorite artists live but it was also a chance for the musicians to interact with their listeners face-to-face.
What does ‘Pakka Hit Hai’ hope to achieve?
Answer: ‘Pakka Hit Hai’ currently is the fastest growing playlist in Pakistan with a consistent growth of 90% month-on-month. It has become a go-to for listeners to entice themselves with the most trending songs in the local market. Through this playlist, our goal has always been to curate a destination that serves as a one-stop-shop for users when they want to enjoy viral tracks from not just established but many emerging artists as well. It serves as a platform, not just for the listeners but artists as well to expand their reach. Being featured on the playlist has allowed us to identify a diverse variety of talents in the local sphere. Abdul Hannan is a prime example.
What are your future plans for ‘Pakka Hit Hai’?
Answer: The love that the Pakka Hit Hai playlist has been receiving and continues to garner is incredible. The fans appreciate it just as much as the artists that feature on it. In light of this, our focus is to continue focusing on the playlist to further grow to get the fans to listen to what they love, while making it more accessible to them. At the same time, we are working on more creative ways to help all the artists get discovered, get heard if they are not. Our major goal is to find ways to enhance the playlist, on and off platform. A prime example for off-platform promotions being our plan to host regular Pakka Hit Hai gigs to give fans an intimate, in-person experience to interact with the artists that they adore greatly.
Rutaba Yaqub is Senior Editor for Spotify Pakistan, Sri Lanka & Bangladesh.
