Spotify: Jennifer Masset’s advice for Indies
Global Head of Indies at Spotify, Jennifer Masset is there to ensure that independent artists and labels fully harness Spotify’s many tools and features. With over 20 years of experience working with independents, she is aware of the challenges these labels face in today’s music market. Tapping into her expertise, we asked her for some on platform advice, a breakdown of the latest features, and how to make the most of them. We also touched on IDOL’s Preferred Partner status and its benefits for deliveries and distribution.
Caption: Jennifer Masset, Spotify’s Global Head of Indies, and Sylvain Morton, IDOL’s Director of distribution, at IDOL’s headquarters
What do you like the most about working with indies?
As Global Head of Indies for Spotify’s Commercial Partnerships team, I am able to work with Labels and Distributors from around the world – and help them to reach listeners in the 178 markets around the world where Spotify is currently available. I have spent my entire career in the Independent sector of the music industry. Indies excel within niches. Their DIY spirit and functionality helps them to embrace innovation and best represent the needs of their local artist community.
Every day is different and their needs vary as the industry evolves. I am certainly never bored!
Among Spotify’s new features, which one would you recommend for an indie label?
We have so many teams across Spotify who are building incredible tools and services for Indies – it would be impossible to pick just one!
All indie labels should be claiming their Label Team and using Spotify For Artists (S4A) on a regular basis – from playlist pitching new tracks at least 7 days in advance of release to reviewing your listener data and analytics. We have finally published a Masterclass where any artist or label can now attend one but there are a lot of great educational videos in S4A too. Canvas is great for adding 8 second video loops to the Now Playing screen for each track you release. We’ve seen listeners share songs with Canvas 10%+ more than songs without, as noted in our recent Fan Study.
But if I could only pick ONE new feature I’m most excited about, I would have to say Marquee! Marquee is a full-screen, sponsored recommendation of your new release to Spotify Free and Premium listeners who have shown interest in your music and have the potential to listen more.
Our teams have been working really closely with the Indies to develop efficient and effective marketing tools which help them maximize audience development and fan engagement. Marquee is now available in 12 countries (including France) and we’re always evolving and developing new tools and resources for artists!
Do you have an example, a success story to share, of Spotify helping an indie label to thrive?
Honestly, there are so many! Our company mission is “to unlock the potential of human creativity—by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by it.” Whenever we are building a new tool or service, we gather feedback from artists, and are thinking about those artists and those listeners. When we build anything, we want it to be scalable for all labels to have access to it and to be able to benefit from the opportunity it is meant to unlock. As a platform, we have the ability to empower artists to have their own voice and drive their own success. It can never – and should never – be just about one.
What makes IDOL a preferred partner as a Delivery platform and a Label distributor?
IDOL has been an active participant in our Preferred Provider Program for the past few years. We have several requirements related to metadata quality which make it easier for artists’ music to end up on the correct artist profile page and reach the correct audience, giving it the greatest chance of success from day one. We also want to be sure that they are delivering music they have the rights to deliver and other sexy backend logistics like that. IDOL offers a fantastic service as both distributor and delivery platform. We really enjoy working with them and appreciate all they do for the Indie label community!