This past May, Spotify published their songs of summer predictions list, which included songs like Party for You by Charlie XCX, What Was That by Lord, and Gnarly by Cats Eye. And now Spotify has revealed their complete songs of summer playlist, which includes those predictions and 10 wild cards that began gaining traction throughout the summer.
You guys, I’m so excited to be here at Spotify in LA with a very special guest who helps curate playlists like Songs of Summer. So, please welcome to the Bop Bible podcast, the editorial lead for Global Hits at Spotify, Cecilia Winter. >> Thank you so much for having me and for that nice intro. I’m happy to be here.
Oh, >> of course. I’m so excited to talk to you and I think that this is something that my audience will really enjoy because we all love Spotify curated playlists and I think it’ll just be great to hear from you and your experiences. >> Yeah, let’s get into it. But I want to start from the beginning.
So, did you always know that you wanted to work in music or did you come from a different industry and then decide later on that you wanted to do music? >> I did. I consider myself one of the lucky ones because I always knew I wanted to work in music. I didn’t have to do too much soulsearching. I kind of just decided when I was a teenager that I had to work in music.
But um what was trickier was figuring out what part of music because this industry is ever changing and there are a lot of different facets and areas where I could you know maybe go into. So uh I went to New York for college and I took as many internships, as many part-time jobs. I volunteered at festivals. I did whatever I could to try and understand a little bit more about how the music world worked and over the course of that time I learned what music curation was and then I was like this is what I want to do.
>> For sure. Yeah. So you tried out a few different areas of music. What would you say is music curation for anybody who might not know? >> Yeah absolutely. So we actually split up music curation and editorial into two buckets. So curation is really the act of selecting songs and attaching them to potential audiences in a range of different contexts.
Whereas editorial is more the storytelling piece. What’s the cultural context behind the song? How are listeners responding to it? And we execute both curation and editorial on a bunch of different surfaces on Spotify. Most well known of course are our editorial playlists. >> Gotcha. Okay. and what led you into your role at Spotify? >> Yeah, so when I discovered that music curation was a field, I first I was looking for a job and I literally just opened Craigslist and typed in music curation and I found a startup streaming app that was just getting off the ground
that really needed someone to come on board and curate music for them. So I joined that startup and then after a few years there started to really like hone my ability as a music creator. It’s a really humbling experience to get started in that field because you know we all love making playlists for our friends.
But when you give a friend a playlist they’re going to be like thanks so much this is great. They’re not going to be like skip ban next. you know, like you’re not going to get that sort of feedback that you get when you’re curating for an audience. So, I definitely had a few experiences in my early curation journey where I would put one of my favorite songs in a playlist and the audience would just tell me, “Thanks, but no thanks.
This is actually not a great fit.” But it really helped me start to learn how different audiences work and how a song that might not be such a great fit for this set of listeners might actually work super super well in a different context. So, having started to really hone those skills, I worked across a bunch of different genres and then ultimately knew that I wanted to work in the hits space.
I’m very fascinated by the mainstream. How does a song move through different genres? It might start in one market, jump to another market. It might, you know, proliferate through clubs or nightlife and then social media and then all of a sudden a bunch of different people know this song from different contexts. So, I’m super interested in how in what a hit means in 2025.
So, uh I knew I wanted to join the global hits team at Spotify. >> Absolutely. Yeah. I feel like social media in general really changed the way we see hit songs. So, I’m curious to know with your role in doing music creation, when did you start seeing that happen and how did that really shift your role with social media and short form content creation? >> Totally.
Social media has been an important tool for music discovery since the early days. I had a MySpace. I don’t know if you had a MySpace. >> I was in more of a Facebook. >> Yeah, totally. I get that. Um, well, look, you missed out on a golden era of music discovery. Picking the song that would go on your MySpace profile, following your favorite bands.
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>> It’s always been really interwoven with music, social media. >> I think that the tipping point where it started to be really like the primary mechanism for a lot of discovery was during the pandemic. People were at home. there was a little bit less discovery happening out in the world. Like I said, nightlife is a really big place for new music to proliferate and sounds to reach new audiences.
That was totally shut down. So, we really saw a huge amount of music discovery moving um to social media platforms. And uh what we really want to do with at Spotify with music discovery is we want to be both reflecting culture and pushing culture. So, we’re not just, you know, seeing what’s happening on social media and trying to make sure that it’s in all the biggest playlists.
We’re actually, you know, a part of that conversation as well. And the editorial team at Spotify has a bunch of different, you know, surfaces that we influence and that we can help get songs to the their ideal audience. >> For sure. Yeah. One of my favorite features that Spotify implemented over the past couple of years has to be the scrolling option.
and you’re able to see just different new music and discover new music. I think that is just an absolutely wonderful feature for music discovery because we see that on social media platforms, but when you’re able to just actually go on to Spotify directly and be able to do that on one platform, I think that is a great tool for discovery and something that I use all the time.
>> Totally. I think when we’re talking about music discovery, we want that connection between the fan and the song to go a little bit deeper than just I heard this song one time and I liked it. The real like sticky listenership where you come back to the song and listen to it again >> needs context.
So that’s what editors are here to do. We provide context by putting it in a playlist with another song. We, you know, are rolling out different forms of giving context to different songs and making sure that people can really dive deeper into the songs and the artists that they’re starting to love and form a relationship that lasts.
>> For sure. >> We know that social media is very ephemeral. So, we want to we want to lengthen that relationship between the the artist and the listener. >> I love it. And as the editorial lead for Global Hits at Spotify and also being bilingual, you speak English and Spanish, what are some of the playlists that you help curate? >> Yes, absolutely.
So, every big playlist at Spotify is really a team effort. We’re constantly in conversation with editors from all over the world to assess not just breaking tracks in their markets, but artists we’re excited about and broader trends that we’re really looking forward to. So, I work with a team of people on playlists like Today’s Top Hits, New Music Friday, and Pop Rising.
And being bilingual has obviously been a huge asset. Latin music is such an integral part of American music culture. And um global music culture, of course, there Latin music subgenres are totally dominant in the conversation. not just there’s a lot of chatter about it in the last like 5 10 years but this has been the case from the beginning of American music culture.
So it’s been a great asset to be bilingual and be able to understand uh you know the lyrics that I’m listening to and the decisions that I’m making and makes a little easier to form an opinion. But I would also say that what’s really exciting to me about the space is that you don’t have to know a word of Spanish to love these songs.
When Bad Bunny’s album dropped last winter, one thing that was really exciting to me was seeing people actually translating the language into their own native tongue and sharing the lyrics with each other and really connecting with these lyrics that are at once hyper specific to Bad Bunny’s relationship with Puerto Rico, but also really like speak to a universal experience of wanting to be at home and being homesick.
So, uh, yes, being bilingual has helped me, but also I’m really excited by the ways in which music is superseding language in global export these days. >> Yeah, absolutely. I think Latin music in general over the past couple of years, we’ve really seen a rise in like regional Mexican music in the US, which is super exciting and something that I wasn’t expecting, but something that I love as someone who is a fan of just all sorts of Latin music.
And it’s just truly so exciting to see. >> It’s amazing. It’s really cool and I think it goes back to again it really helps for global export when there’s some sort of gateway. So often the gateway will be like I said night life is big. If you hear something on the dance floor it’s more about like the rhythm and how it feels and the musicality and a little bit less about the lyrics.
I think we’re seeing the next level of global export now where it doesn’t actually have to be super dable or you know have that connection. And it can actually still be lyric based. People are just leaning in and more interested and open to hearing music that’s not in a language they understand and doing the leg work themselves to figure out what’s being said and make that connection.
>> Yeah, for sure. And you mentioned that you work with New Music Friday, today’s top hits, and Pop Rising. Those are three of the biggest playlists on Spotify. So, a lot of curation having to be done there. And I’m curious to know how do artists actually make it on to today’s top hits? >> Yeah, absolutely.
So, my team looks at a wide range of qualitative and quantitative signals when we’re deciding what goes in not just to today’s top hits, but to any playlist on the platform. It’s really a mix of art and science. the art part, um, you know, our editorial instincts, understanding what’s happening in culture, how these this a particular song might connect to a broader movement or trend.
Um, and the science piece is that more qualitative angle like um, you know, what’s the real time streaming data on this song? How much of that streaming is organic? Um, how has this track done in our feeder playlists? how is this track done in its home market? Um, really taking in a huge range of inputs.
And of course, we’re always, you know, ear to the ground, uh, understanding what’s happening in culture, what the conversation is around a given song or artist. And those can also be factors >> for sure. >> And that’s not just for today’s top hits. That’s for all of our playlists are some blend of art and science. >> Yeah, absolutely.
And from my understanding, artists and labels can submit their songs ahead of release for consideration with playlisting on Spotify. So, is a lot of your role listening to music before it comes out and deciding which playlist, if any, it could go on? >> Yes. Uh, it’s a huge part of the work of any editor.
We listen to thousands and thousands of new songs every week. We’re reviewing those pitches as they come in and we’re also monitoring those performance signals for tracks that are already out. So, understanding whether a track might be eligible to graduate into a new space or move into a different contextual listening experience. >> Okay, great.
I want to ask you about Love Island USA because I feel like this summer we saw a huge conversion with what songs they were playing into streams on Spotify. I mean, one of my favorite playlists is the Love Island USA playlist on Spotify. I feel like it’s just full of summery pop songs that I love. So, what were some of the conversions into streams you saw with Love Island USA? >> Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, look, it was a real moment this summer with Love Island. Um, one thing that was really interesting to me was not only were we seeing the songs that were featured in the show drive up, we were actually seeing a ton of user generated content being created, user generated playlists focused on Love Island, focused on specific characters or storylines, and that really indicates a lot of lean forward investment and engagement on the part of our listeners.
So, Love Island theme playlist shot up 6,300% over the course of the series. >> That’s crazy. >> It is crazy. And it’s really unusual for a TV show. Not every TV show drives that type of really like invested engagement on our platform. >> And then um you know, the theme song, which is an edit of Janelle’s Janelle Man’s Make Me Feel went up 2,000% in streams over the course of the series. So, that’s great.
I’ve always loved that song. So, I’m happy to see it get some extra shine. Um, it’s really, really cool. That’s when we’re talking about signals that we interpret when we’re deciding what track might make it into what playlist. Qualitative signal, you know, of course that’s all this percentage increase stuff, but the quantitative signal is, okay, something’s going on here with Love Island.
This is not like every other reality TV show. This is there’s really a conversation happening here that’s directly linked to music specifically. So, it’s fascinating. >> That’s something my team is always looking out for. >> Yeah. Did you watch the show? >> Um, I can’t say that I’ve gotten around to it yet, but I’ve kept up with the most important things.
>> Okay. >> Um, like the music and >> um you know, my dream date. >> Yeah, I love it. >> Etc. >> Yeah, the music is honestly good. The music and the memes are really if I don’t have time to watch a show, that’s my mode of ingress is the music and the memes. >> Yeah. I had never watched it before this summer, but the music is truly something that got me into it because I listen to the playlist on Spotify and I was like, “These songs are so good.
I want to like hear them live on the show and just see like how they’re incorporated within it.” But totally. Yeah. Yeah. I love the music from it so much. >> It’s also a great way of forming that stickier connection that we were talking about. So more than just, oh, I heard 30 seconds of a song, now I’m gonna >> continue living my life.
If I hear 30 seconds of a song over an iconic clip of a TV show that I love, I’m all the more likely to form a emotional connection with that song and a deeper connection with the artists. I’m more likely to go add it to a playlist myself, to find it on Spotify, etc. So TV shows are a great way to form that uh form that connection.
>> Absolutely. and Love Island having all this summery pop music kind of leads me into the songs of summer playlist on Spotify. So Spotify originally published a songs of summer prediction list in May. And these predictions were songs like Ordinary by Alex Warren, Nokia by Drake, Like Jenny by Jenny, and No One Noticed by the Maras.
And now Spotify is revealing 10 wild card songs that were not part of that original list. And I’m just going to run through the wild cards really quick. So we have Famous A Gun by Addison Ray, Alamre Pua by Bad Bunny, Backseat by Bal Briata, Jump by Blackpink, Blessings by Calvin Harris and Clementine Douglas, No Broke Boys by Disco Lines and Tanashe, Daisies by Justin Bieber, Illegal by Pink Panthers, Whim Yammy by Pluto and YK Nie, and Manchild by Sabrina Carpenter.
So, my first thought after reading these wild cards and the predictions was that I love how many genres are on this playlist. You know, we have pop, country, dance, afro beats. So many genres that really make up this summer with music. So, I’m curious to know, are there any genres you’re seeing on the playlist this summer that were not on the playlist last year? >> Absolutely.
So when you look at the dance and electronic space, this type of music always spikes in the summertime, but this year we’re seeing some specific subg genres like UK garage and speedhouse really taking off. >> There’s also there’s always an influence of Afroofusion, Afro Beats, Afroop having an impact on other genres, but this year in particular, we’re feeling a real inflection point where Afroofusion is just completely ubiquitous throughout the summer.
And it takes a lot of different shapes. Of course, we have legends like Davido on the list, but we’ve also got artists like Bele who is incorporating Afro beats into his own Colombian music. Um, really creating this unique Afro beats Latino sound. And you hear it across a bunch of different songs on this list, which is really exciting and just a really perfect summer vibe.
>> Yeah. >> Another spot that uh I’ve noticed is really interesting this year is pop music. Last year, lots of huge pop breakout moments. It was all really loud and shiny and colorful and honestly a little bit unhinged. When you look at the pop songs that are trending this year, they’re a lot more narrative.
They’re really heartbroken in some cases. They’re yearning >> songs like Alex Warren’s Ordinary, Somber, Jesse Murf. These are artists who are really storytelling in a little bit of a darker way than we were hearing from the pop breakouts last year. So that’s an indication of where audienc’s attention is going and how this year there’s just generally a greater interest and a little bit more of a down tempmpo feel.
>> Yeah. Super interesting. And I feel like one song that I just love on the wild cards list is Famous Gun by Addison Ray. And I feel like it kind of incorporates both those elements of storytelling but also just like upbeat pop music. And we see that in the music video for the song.
And I wanted to ask you about Addison Ray because Famous Aun became her second entry on today’s top hits after Diet Pepsi was a huge song for her this summer. How do you think she has been able to rebrand so successfully from a Tik Tok star to truly the next main pop girl? >> For sure. I think I mean I totally agree.
This is one of my favorite songs of summer as well. I remember when I first saw the title Fame as a gun, >> I thought, well, this is interesting. >> I assume that the gun would not be held by Addison, but then when you listen to the lyrics of the song, she’s actually wielding fame as this powerful instrument that she can use as a lever to move to the top.
>> And when you look at Addison’s career over the course of the last few months, yes, she’s made a lot of really smart decisions. She showed up in the right places. She came out at Coachella with Araca. She’s done a lot of great interviews. Um, she came out at the high underplay here in LA. >> Just really smart roll out, but I don’t want to undercut how good the music is.
At the end of the day, it comes back to the music being really strong, really cohesive. She worked with these two female producer producers, Luca and Alvira, on the whole project and they really helped her craft a sound that is uniquely her >> while also being really, you know, solid, accessible pop music.
So, I think at the end of the day, it all boils down to just having fantastic music and the rest of it is helpful but um less important. >> Yeah. crafting like a great body of work that’s truly your own unique sound definitely helps you stand out and that’s truly something that she Alvira and Luca have done with this debut project with it being her debut is crazy because she’s learned so much with music over the past couple of years and I just think it’s so fascinating. I love her.
I’m a huge fan. >> Yeah. Oh, I’m a huge fan as well. And I’m I just I think this is really an impressive project. And >> we love when someone is >> stepping out of their comfort zone a little bit and when we can see that intentionality and that’s definitely present with Addison and and with the producers she’s working with.
>> For sure. Yeah. So, Famous Gun as well as many other songs on this wild card list came out after Spotify published their original predictions list. So, did any of these releases surprise you? >> Honestly, this track by Balu Briata, I’m so happy about it. This band has been they’re from New Zealand.
They’ve been slowly gaining traction over the course of the last few months, but building a really >> a really engaged fan base. And when our editors heard this song, it was straight away beloved by many members of the team. And to me, it’s a little on the nose because the lyrics are about It’s a little on the nose for me to say this.
I mean, because the lyrics are about driving, but this is the perfect summer driving song. It is just so good. Um, it’s a little bit, you know, strokesy almost with these guitars. Like, it’s the guy’s vocals are it’s a little psychedelic. It really reminds me of driving home while the sun is setting after like a really long beach day with your friends.
And this is the song that will take you from day to night. >> Absolutely. Yeah. I feel like you’re catching it very early on, too, because I was looking at the song Stress. It has 9 million streams, I think, right now, which is still a lot, but definitely less streams than a lot of the songs on this list. So, I think catching this song early on is it’s I I feel like it’s going to become a big hit, too.
>> Here’s hoping. >> Yeah. >> This is what we really try to take into consideration when we’re building a list like Songs of Summer. Yeah. There are three primary factors, right? Our editorial instinct, the cultural context that the song sits in, and also our real-time streaming data. So, we want to be looking at all three of these components.
And one track we might be, you know, a big editorial pick, something like this that we just know feels like summer. >> And it’s okay that it’s not doing Bad Bunny Numbers yet because it’s the perfect fit for this playlist. >> It really is. Yeah. that just captures that chill summery vibe that we all love.
And I wanted to ask you about Sabrina Carpenter because last year she had Espresso on the Songs of Summer playlist and this year she has Manchild as one of the wild cards. Manchild was another song that came out after the predictions. So did you know right when she released Manchild that this had to be a wild card? >> Well, in pop music there are no guarantees.
Just because you had a huge song last summer doesn’t always mean that you’re going to be a shoe in for songs of summer this year. However, when we heard Manchild, we were as a team very excited. This is really Sabrina giving the people what they want. It’s fun and it’s frothy, but it’s also really clever. It’s full of personality and it’s just very well executed as a pop song.
So, we had a feeling that it was going to do pretty well out the gate. And sure enough, as soon as it was released, it rocketed up the Spotify charts. We’ve seen a lot of really great lean forward engagement on the song continue to happen over the course of the last few weeks. So, it made sense uh for one of our wild cards. >> Became her biggest streaming debut for a song on Spotify, which is so exciting.
I’m so excited for this new album that she has coming out. She’s great. >> Me, too. Did you catch her on tour? >> Oh, I’ve She’s actually the artist I have seen the most amount of times. >> That’s cool. >> Yeah. Yeah. [snorts] Great. >> I saw her, the first time I ever saw her was actually at the Wilturn in LA, so obviously >> yeah, smaller venue than she’s performing at now, >> but it’s just been so exciting to see her breakthrough. I such a stand.
>> It’s another great example of an artist who has really put time and effort into crafting her unique sound and her unique artist proposition, and you can really see her reap the rewards. >> Yeah. Have you been able to see her? >> Oh, yeah. I love her. I think she’s so good live. >> Yeah.
Oh my gosh. Yeah. Her performance is Yeah. The whole stage, it’s everything. The outfits, the coro. >> I felt like I was watching a Broadway show in the best way. >> Yeah. It’s just so much. Yeah. Theatrics, like all of that. It’s amazing. >> And I wanted to ask you also about Charlie XX and Party for You because Party for You is one of the songs of the summer despite being five years old.
Why do you think that out of all of Charlie’s older songs, Party for You was the one to take off this summer? >> So, there are a couple of different reasons why this track got so popular. Of course, there are some viral performances of her singing the track. Uh, people were really connecting to the lyrics of the track.
And I think overall when you look at the songs, the Charlie XCX songs that were big last summer and the Charlie XCX song that’s big this summer, you can really sense a shift in listener habits because last summer, obviously, these Brat songs, while many of them have a quite profound meaning, they are on their surface party songs.
It’s the party girl era. This year, as listeners are gravitating a little bit more to that narrative, more introspective yearning feeling that we were talking about before, it makes sense that this is the Charlie song that would start to bubble up. And people are starting to connect to the lyrics the same way that they connect to a lot of those other uh more narrative pop songs.
Yeah, I think it’s perfect because this song is definitely the vibe of it’s after the party and Brat was the whole party era and now it’s like, okay, we’re moving on from it. And I think she incorporated that so well in the music video for the song, too, where she’s kind of tearing down the billboard at the end.
It was it was so meaningful. I loved it. >> Yeah, it’s really poignant. And I think that when you know to close out the Brat era, not saying that the that Brat summer is over or really ever has to end, don’t get me wrong, but >> to have this this summer, I only threw this party for you. She’s talking to an unrequited crush. We’ve all been there.
A lot of the other songs on the list deal with this feeling of unrequited love, but she’s also in a way talking to us. I threw this party for you. She’s been very open about wrestling with, you know, the impact that Brat has had on her life and it’s it’s interesting to see that come through in the Party for You music video and in this particular song resurging.
I think we should also note that it just has a phenomenal breakdown. Oh, yeah. >> That whole part where she’s like, I just want to pull up. That is a really that really gets stuck in the in the old brain. So, people are definitely responding to it for that reason as well. Have you been able to see Charlie live? >> Oh, yeah. I was at the sweat tour.
>> Oh, I love it. >> In the pit having an amazing time. >> Yeah, me too. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. One of my favorite performers for sure. I loved at Coachella. It was just her on the stage and I feel like that moment really helped Party for You blow up even more too because I saw so many viral videos after that of people associating the end of Coachella with Party for You and kind of just >> wishing it would still go on and stuff like that.
So yeah, it’s it was just fascinating to see, but truly just made sense and I I love that it has become so big. >> I was at the sweat tour date where she yelled at the crowd for not dancing enough, >> but I have to say that was not my lived experience. At least in my little [clears throat] corner of the crowd, everyone was everyone was going really hard. So I was happy about that.
I I wanted to be like, but not me, right? Like [laughter] you’re you’re probably yelling at someone else, not me. >> Yeah. You talked about Bad Bunny a bit and how so many different demographics have been connecting with his music. So he has two songs on the songs of summer playlist, Novo and Alam Pua, which just came out last week.
What are your thoughts on this new Bad Bunny era, first of all? >> Yes. Um, my thoughts on these two songs are strongly positive. Uh, no was an obvious inclusion for the list. When we started talking about this way back in the spring, we already know a couple of songs that we think might be a solid fit.
And Nova Yol had already started to bubble up as the weather got a little warmer. It literally says if you want to have a good time, you should probably spend a summer in New York, which I agree with and many agree with. And it’s just like fast-paced, really warm production. His delivery is really rapid. He’s telling these giving us these quick snapshots of spending a summer in New York and I’m here and I’m drinking this and I’m on a rooftop and now I’m here and I’m with this person and you just really get swept up in the energy of it. So, we knew that had to be
in the list. >> When it comes to the second track, Alamre Pua, it’s a little bit darker. It’s more of a heartbreak song. He’s talking again this theme of yearning. He’s talking about, you know, missing this person, but we knew that it would still connect because of where audienc’s appetites are.
It’s also coming out right as he launches this record-breaking residency notoak in Puerto Rico. And so we are we can see that impact already start to affect Bad Bunny streams across the board and affect this new era. >> Absolutely. Yeah. I’m just loving this new era of his and I love how he’s continuing to surprise us with this new track too.
I was not expecting a whole other song >> because he’s blending these modern elements with this more traditional Puerto Rican subgenre bomba which you can really hear on the percussive elements of this song. So, it’ll be interesting to see whether he continues going down this uh down this route. >> Yeah, I’m excited about it.
Someone I’m also really excited to see on this playlist is Tanash. She was on it last year with Nasty and is on it again this year with No Broke Boys with Disco Lines. What are your thoughts on the Tanache Renaissance? I’m so here for it. >> I am also extremely here for the Tanache Renaissance. I have been a fan for a long time.
Many folks on our editorial team are huge fans of Tanache. And when you go back and listen to some of her early stuff now, it feels really forward thinking. If it might have come out eight or nine years ago, but it still feels fresh and it’s really cool to see her get her flowers in the last couple years. >> Yeah, I love the No Broke Boys remix.
Last year I was like, “This song needs to be a hit.” And then this year, Disco Lines completely just reimagined it and made it truly one of the songs of the summer, which I’m obsessed with. >> Yes, there are definitely some great dance pop moments on this list. We have No Broke Boys. We have this new ad, Calvin Harris and Clementine Douglas.
Super euphoric dance floor ready tracks and they sit really nicely next to this Morgan Sea Tree track, Say My Name, which is a flip of Florence and the Machine song Spectrum. >> And all of these tracks just have this really light, euphoric, rave energy. So, I’m really happy we were able to add No Broke Boys and also Blessings.
>> Yeah. with these wild cards, the average BPM of our list has definitely risen. We’ve we’ve amped it up a notch. There have been some really, you know, high-profile, high energy new releases in the last month. And there have also been some tracks that were already out that have started to bubble up more.
So, it’s it’s nice to be able to adjust the overall feel of the list in keeping with the mood of the summer. >> I love that. That means it’s a good summer in my opinion. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. We can’t. Look, I love having a picnic on the beach, but we can’t just be having a picnic on the beach, you know? We have to move our bodies.
>> Yeah. Like daytime songs, nighttime songs. I I love it. You mentioned that some of the songs you were thinking about in the spring. Is that when you typically start the curation process for Songs of Summer? >> Yeah. So, the curation process for Songs of Summer starts really early. As you may know, most of the songs of summer are already out for months by the time summer actually rolls around.
And this has been true year over year. It’s not very common that the song of summer actually comes out during the summer. So early in the spring, all of the editors that work in the northern hemisphere, so the editors who are about to start having their summer listening pick up, get together and talk about all the different specific tracks that are starting to tick up, but also just broader trends and artists that we’re excited about in our spacesh >> and we build from those conversations a draft list, keep talking about it,
identify the through lines and the different threads, think a little bit about our audience for this list and what we want them to connect to in the playlist and go from there. >> Yeah, I love it. It seems like it seems like such a fascinating process to be involved with like picking up those trends as early as spring starts and also with the wild card list thinking about okay, how has this changed in the past couple of months? >> Exactly.
It’s we’re lucky that we have all these expert editors all around the world who all focus on different genres and different markets because we can have this conversation a lot sooner because everyone is identifying music so early on. >> Yeah, absolutely. So, I wanted to ask you, we talked a little bit about some songs that are starting to take off on this list.
Are there any more songs that you’re seeing start to take off that you think will become big hits throughout the rest of the year? Yes. [laughter] I was ruminating on which one I should say first. I’m really excited about Olivia Dean. She’s a pop star out of the UK. Have you listened to her yet? Yeah. She has this song Nice to Ether that is just so beautiful, so addictive, and it’s the type of song that I can see having a really long life.
>> And I’m also really excited about the Conan Grey release that just came out. Yeah, >> I am I’m loving this era for Conan. I feel like he’s stepping into a sound that really fits him and our editors around the world are really stoked about this track. So, both of these songs I am rooting for having a a longer life carrying us into fall.
>> Conan, I love that he’s now working with Alvivera and Luca as well with this new album. I’m so excited about that. >> It’s great. Conan’s a great example of an artist that has been working for many years at honing his craft, honing his sound, and he’s >> has never been afraid to experiment in new directions musically.
So, yeah, um this feels very personal to him and it’s also just really strong, well-written pop music. So, I’m excited to hear more from this era. >> Yeah, for sure. Something I love about New Music Friday is that it seems like every week you guys have a strong section of it for independent artists as well.
So, are there any independent artists that you can put us on to that you’re currently enjoying? >> Totally. So, um there’s this artist Storm Henshaw who just put out this track Feel Again, that’s really strong. It’s just a beautiful cinematic pop song. >> Big fan of her. And we’ve also got this band called Fairade. They’re an Australian three-piece.
It’s very like, you know, heady but also grounded in, you know, a melodic sensibility. There’s a little bit of psychedelia there. Um, that’s that my team is also really excited about. We’re digging through independent music, independent artists all the time. So, it’s really fun to get to support them in some of our bigger flagship playlists, like you say, in New Music Friday. Yeah.
You should also definitely check out Fresh Vines, which just turned 10 this year, which is our home for independent artists. It’s really our front door for super small artists. Um, often very early in their careers will get a look on Fresh Finds. So, um, and we have different genre playlists. Fresh finds pop, dance, indie, as well as the flagship.
We have Fresh Finds playlists all over the world for more local content. So, it’s a really robust built out ecosystem that’s dedicated to supporting independent artists early in their career. >> Yeah, absolutely. Super exciting for those artists to be able to have a platform like Spotify supporting them in that way.
>> Totally. It’s nice to have those dedicated zones and it’s also nice to be able to find opportunities for them outside of those spaces like in New Music Friday and other flagships. So, it’s something that Spotify editorial is really committed to and also excited about because independent artists are cool. >> Yeah. Really cool.
>> They’re always pushing music culture forward. >> Yeah. So, I have to ask you after talking about songs of summer, what is your number one song of the summer? >> It’s really hard for me to pick a number one. But in our list, the song Sup by BB Tricks. Yes, I love BB Tricks. Okay. So, there’s four four young female artists in our list now.
I mean, there are many young female artists, but there are four that I want to point out because I want to manifest a collab. It’s BB Tricks, Addison Ray, Pluto, and Pink Panthers. These are just young, cool artists doing really interesting, forward-inking work in their respective genres, and I’m really excited that all four of them are in our songs of summer list.
>> Yeah, I could totally see a collab between them. Yeah. Um, so manifesting that Super is definitely going to be like by the numbers one of my top stream songs of the summer. >> Yeah. Yeah. I love her and I loved that she was on the Brat remix album, too. So good. My favorite. >> Perfect.
I mean, the Brat extended universe is >> we’re still seeing the ripples, right? Like artists who were on the remix album, artists who met each other in this context. Yeah, >> I think we’re going to be seeing, you know, the effects of Brat for for many summers to come. >> Yeah. I mean, three of the artists on the remix album are on Spotify Song of the Summer.
We have Addison Ray, BB Tricks, Tan. I love it. It’s great. >> But Cecilia, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today about your role at Spotify, what you do. I know what you were talking about would be truly insightful for my audience and everyone who loves Spotify curated playlist. So, I just truly appreciate it. Thank you.
>> Thank you so much, Adam. This has been really fun. Thanks for having me. >> Absolutely. Yeah. and stream Spotify’s Songs of Summer playlist with the wild cards
