Spotify Passport

How can we take Spotify’s re-centered initiative as a discovery brand to innovate their current platform?

A Little Background:

As a brand that prides itself on being at the forefront of music culture, we knew that we had to create something innovative and adaptable to their current platform. This idea needed to push beyond Spotify’s current capabilities and encourage a new culture of fandom for the Spotify brand. But first, we had to understand fandom:

“Fandom isn’t people facing something they love, it’s a group of people interacting and sharing with each other, around a thing they love.” – Kenyatta Cheese, Cofounder of Everybody at Once

Our Research:

Targeting the Musically Ambiguous Travelers.

According to Spotify Insights, the most impressionable time for experimenting with different musical genres are between the ages 16 and 25. Coincidentally, this age group is also more likely to travel than any other demographic. This connection between exploring music and discovering the world is what led us to our insight.

Our Insight:

Discovering Music Goes Beyond a Curated Playlist.

What we found was that Spotify fans don’t just discover music through the playlists in their pocket, but by interacting with the world around them. Seattle and Grunge, Venice Beach and Skate Punk, Jersey Shore and Jersey Club, these areas share a unique marriage between music and culture that is cultivated by the people living there.

Musical Genres Come From Geographical Fandom

Similar to fandom, Grunge, Skate Punk, and Jersey Club all started because the cultural beliefs and values inherent in a specific location fueled off each other, creating new fashions, ideologies, and ways of expressing oneself.

Opportunity

Use Spotify Data to Customize Your Experience

Through their extensive reserve of user data, Spotify has the capabilities to let fans build and create musical personalities that go beyond curated playlists.

The Idea

Let fans contribute and discover new music by tapping into the rhythmic culture of an area.

How It Works

Location Specific Playlists.

Upon entering a geographic location you gain access to a unique, location-specific playlist. While you’re in the area, your own listening habits will contribute to the playlist. As you travel and discover more areas, your library of location playlists grows.

Uniqueness Through Distinctiveness.

To avoid each playlist turning into a top-40 list, songs are categorized based on their distinctiveness – songs that are listened to more in that specific area than in other geographical locations. This distinctiveness-grading will ensure playlists capture the unique musical personality of each location.

Add Playlists to Your Passport.

Fans will be able to keep the playlists they discover, providing them with a library of musical memories that they can relive whenever they want.

Case Study Video

Video Spot (45 seconds)

This commercial will broadcast on social media, television, and the Spotify App itself.

Print & Experiential

Knowing that those on the move will most likely run into these playlists’, we’ll target fans in airports, train stations, and bus stations.

By setting up visual cues in the real world, we can let fans know when they’ve entered an area enabled with Spotify Passport. Experiential boxes will reward discovery and encourage fandom by providing memorabilia, concert tickets, and all-expense-paid vacations to the heaviest listeners.