The growing playlist scene on streaming services is becoming a “closed shop” to independent labels, that are finding it increasingly difficult to infiltrate the major label-dominated playlists on Spotify, Apple Music et al.
That was a key message from AIM’s annual Indie-Con in London on Friday (Jan 29), which hosted a day of panels debating the health of the independent sector worldwide, featuring execs from labels including BMG, Play It Again Sam, !K7, Secretly Group and Inertia.
Having a spot on an influential playlist can rocket a track up the charts, as was seen recently with Jonas Blue’s cover of Fast Car (Virgin EMI), that shot 58 places to reach #3 on the UK’s Official Singles Chart after appearing on multiple Spotify playlists worldwide. However, those opportunities seem few and far between for the indie sector.
The DMA’s were a hot new signing for Korda Marshall early last year – one of his first since BMG Chrysalis bought his independent label Infectious Music in September 2014.
Now is a crucial time in the band’s rollout ahead of the release of their debut album, Hills End, on Feb 26th.
It’s going well so far, with latest single Delete sitting on the BBC Radio 1 A List and Radio X in the UK. But does it appear on any of Spotify’s leading playlists in the market? None.
“The discrepancy between major media spikes [for new tracks] and total lack of interest from Spotify to engage in any meaningful way is quite scary.”
Marshall told an audience at Indie-Con: “I started ringing [Spotify’s Head of European Relations] Kevin Brown last Tuesday [to try and get Delete playlisted], I ring him every day, it’s just not right. The discrepancy between major media spikes and total lack of interest from Spotify to engage in any meaningful way is quite scary.”
Play It Again Sam MD Peter Thompson referred to the playlist scene as “a little bit dark arts” and said the music that’s included isn’t broad enough genre-wise. Heavier music de facto misses out, said Thompson, as the majority of those that curate the most-listened to playlists favour softer music.
“When we have nicer sounding piano and gentle female vocals, getting onto playlists is a lot easier than with heavier music,” he explained. “Tech companies take the safe route [when choosing tracks].”
As well as the streaming services’ in-house curated lists, the major labels all have their own regularly updated playlist brands on services such as Spotify and Deezer. Universal owns Digster, Sony owns Filtr and, in 2014, Warner bought Playlists.net and took it in-house.
The big three are said to have inter-company arrangements where they trade spots on each other’s lists, with some management companies doing the same. “It’s a closed shop,” said Marshall. “It’s a fascinating landscape and at the moment it’s quite controlled, it needs to be opened up and made a more level playing field.”
AIM’s Music Connected day back in April last year was dominated by the call for a collective independent playlist destination from the then Head of Digital at Cooking Vinyl, Sammy Andrews. In September, news surfaced of a project underway to launch a new playlist brand, helmed by AIM and Andrews – who now heads up her own consultancy firm Sabotage New Media.
Pictured [L-R]: Peter Thompson (Play It Again Sam), Korda Marshall (BMG), John Dyer (Domino), Hannah Overton (Secretly Group) and Diane Wagg (Deluxxe Management)
Music Business Worldwide