In 2016, Spotify started utilizing the facility of our platform for the essential work of civic engagement, and in 2020, we unveiled Play Your Part forward of the pivotal U.S. presidential election. Our nonpartisan marketing campaign inspired eligible voters to get out and vote, and supported potential first-time voters in preparing to take action. Now, two years later, because the U.S. heads right into a midterm election cycle, we’re as soon as once more encouraging listeners to make their voices heard via the facility of voting, and supporting artists and staff who want to do the identical.
Voting in non-presidential years is important to making sure your voice is heard on the federal, state, and native ranges, but, on common, turnout for midterm elections tends to be decrease than presidential years, particularly amongst younger voters. So forward of the midterms, we’re targeted on serving to “second-time voters” return to the polls for the primary time since 2020 and proceed to construct their voting habits.
We’ve reached tens of tens of millions of Spotify customers worldwide to encourage them to vote of their native elections in France, Germany, Brazil, and elsewhere via Play Your Part. This yr within the U.S., we’re using our platform to showcase civic engagement alternatives and academic assets, in addition to help artists and podcasters who wish to remind their followers of the significance of heading to the polls. We’ll be driving listeners to a customized useful resource hub created by HeadCount that makes use of BallotReady and TurboVote instruments to assist them make a plan to vote and be taught what’s on the poll they’ll solid in simply two quick weeks.
Where it counts
Andy Bernstein is the Executive Director and Founder of HeadCount, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group that works within the music and tradition house to register voters and get folks typically taking part in democracy. He created it in 2004 after realizing “if I can get people who go to the same concerts I go to to vote, maybe that’s a change I can make in the world.”
“Civic engagement is really essential because it’s really foundational,” Andy defined to For the Record. “It’s at the core of so many other issues and causes, so when people get out there and vote, their values are reflected. Programs like Spotify’s that get people voting—getting their customers voting, getting their employees engaged, and really using their reach to make participation a social norm—are really important.”
Andy Bernstein, Executive Director and Founder of HeadCount
Andy notes that that is significantly the case in a midterm election. “In most midterm elections, only one in five young people turn out. And even in 2018, which was a historically high election turnout, it was one in three. So you still have the majority of young people who are sitting on the sidelines for the midterm elections. So the opportunity to create awareness and create a culture of participation is really, really great.”
As a part of Play Your Part, we’re not solely making a customized useful resource hub with HeadCount, however we’ve additionally labored with reveals like Call Her Daddy and Not Past It to encourage listeners to vote via instruments resembling PSAs, social content material, and in-show integrations. Listeners could even hear voting-related PSAs in different podcasts they love over the following two weeks. We’ve additionally created an unique playlist, Focus on the Midterms, to assist maintain voters on job whereas they’re finding out their ballots and up to date our Play Your Part: Civic Engagement Hub.
Furthermore, going into the election, Spotify in partnership with PLUS1 sponsored an off-the-record, invite-only digital salon to encourage artists and podcasters to make use of their platforms to assist their followers vote. Attendees will even obtain customized, unbranded belongings to make use of on their platforms.
For Spotify staff, we’ve created a program in partnership with Power the Polls and Invisible Hand to assist information our staff to turn into ballot employees. “This year we continue to see jurisdictions struggle to staff polling places—especially with bilingual and tech-savvy poll workers,” says Casey Acierno, Media Responsibility and Civic Engagement Lead on Spotify’s Social Impact group. “Poll workers are critical to operating our elections and ensuring all eligible voters can cast a ballot. Our employees can help fill this need, ensure their community votes, and get a front-row seat to the democratic process.”
Casey herself has been engaged in civic engagement and voting work since she was an adolescent. “During elections in the early 2000s, I was too young to vote and I remember feeling helpless—and that not enough people were paying attention. So I found a way to get involved by making phone calls to encourage people to get out and vote,” she shared with For the Record. Casey’s simply as concerned now as she was then—and she or he’s nonetheless working to unfold the message concerning the significance of voting and democracy to youthful voters.
Casey Acierno, Media Responsibility and Civic Engagement Lead on Spotify’s Social Impact group
“You think of elections as something you do, you vote, and that’s that,” she mentioned. “But when you think about it more deeply and you realize what people have fought for to have the right to vote, you realize how important it is to help people understand that it’s such a privilege to live somewhere where our vote counts. We’re able to make a real impact on the issues we care about. It’s so critical to vote all the way down the ballot, because sometimes those smaller elections that you don’t even think about are the ones that make the most impact on your day-to-day life.”
We’re proud to advertise protected, safe, accountable—and fascinating—data on Spotify concerning the U.S. midterm election and the way creators, staff, and followers can participate. But we will’t do it alone—it takes all of us to make an affect.
“HeadCount has been such an incredible partner in this space,” says Casey. “They thoroughly understand how to talk to artists, how to talk through culture, and how to do it in a way that really moves young people to take action. Voting is super complicated, it’s so different in every state, a lot of the information is super dry, and they’ve really cracked the code on how to use artists and creators to make voting cool and fun, and something you do with your community.”
So don’t wait: Join the dialog and make your voice heard on November 8.