The LGBTQIA+ group has vastly influenced music, and each music and tradition have lengthy been moved by the group in return. As increasingly artists really feel empowered to share their genuine selves onstage and off, the facility and affect of queer creators develop as guiding forces throughout tradition.<\/span><\/p>\n Today, Spotify introduces GLOW, a brand new international music program celebrating and amplifying LGBTQIA+ artists and creators. It\u2019s our newest initiative to help folks of this traditionally marginalized group of voices and reassert our dedication to fairness in audio. It ensures that queer creators, and their contributions to music and tradition, are heard and honored year-round.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n GLOW is supported by an on- and off-platform ecosystem the place LGBTQIA+ artists and customers are authentically represented and meaningfully included.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n All in, GLOW will streamline and heighten the help Spotify has offered via our annual international Pride activations. It can be accessible in 50+ markets throughout Europe, India, Asia, Africa, North America, Latin America, the Nordics, and Southeast Asia.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n To launch, we\u2019re internet hosting <\/span>LGBTQIA+ artists and songwriters on the <\/span>Spotify At Mateo workplace<\/span><\/a> in LA, together with <\/span>jesse<\/b> saint<\/b> john<\/b><\/a>, who has written for Britney Spears, Lizzo, and Kim Petras; <\/span>JHart<\/b><\/a>, who has written for Troye Sivan, 5SOS, and Little Mix; <\/span>Ilsey<\/b><\/a>, who has written for Panic! on the Disco, Miley Cyrus, Mark Ronson, and Harry Styles); and <\/span>INK<\/b><\/a>, who has written for Beyonc\u00e9, Leon Bridges, and Lil Nas X. The attendees will take part i<\/span>n <\/span>three days<\/span> of writing periods geared toward celebrating and galvanizing collaboration amongst creators within the LGBTQIA+ group.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We acknowledge the facility of our platform to raise, uplift, and highlight voices which have been traditionally marginalized, and we\u2019re dedicated to utilizing it to drive cultural change. GLOW is supported by Spotify\u2019s Creator Equity Fund as the newest a part of our ongoing dedication to fostering fairness within the audio house. By offering equitable sources to queer artists on a world stage, GLOW is one other means we\u2019re working to create higher fairness, empathy, and illustration for the LGBTQIA+ group. We work carefully with our companions at GLAAD and others to make sure GLOW finest represents LGBTQIA+ artists and listeners in genuine and significant methods.<\/span><\/p>\n The spine of GLOW is Spotify staff who’re captivated with music, artist empowerment, and above all else, their queer group.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I’m a supervisor on our newly shaped Artist Partnerships Team, however I\u2019ve been in the sort of position for the previous three years. I at present work throughout pop, dance, and indie, discovering ways in which we are able to convey Spotify into the whole lot of an artist\u2019s profession exterior of a file cycle\u2014touring, festivals, merchandise, integrating artists into campaigns inside these genres and our playlists\u2014discovering new and inventive methods to associate along with artists.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019ve labored on Spotify\u2019s Pride marketing campaign for the previous three years. I got here in and was very, very captivated with LGBTQIA+ artists and the way we are able to higher serve that group and the fan base. After engaged on Pride, I began engaged on what can be an evergreen program similar to <\/span>Frequency<\/span><\/a> or <\/span>EQUAL<\/span><\/a> with a colleague (the Head of Rock on our Editorial Team, Laura Ohls). We began engaged on this most likely two years in the past and in that point, the staff has grown exponentially, turn out to be extra strong, and acquired loads of help company-wide.<\/span><\/p>\n I, together with nearly all of the group, am very weary and skeptical of corporatized Pride. If an organization goes to indicate up in June, they’ve to indicate up all year long. Where this program is superb is that its sole objective is to help the group on- and off-platform year-round. The means that we’re exhibiting up on this program additionally feels totally different\u2014we\u2019re supporting these artists due to who they’re holistically. These are artists who’re doing unimaginable issues and so they simply so occur to be queer.<\/span><\/p>\n In the \u201990s it was laborious to search out strong queer illustration, and also you had icons like <\/span>Elton John<\/b><\/a> and <\/span>George Michael<\/b><\/a>, so when <\/span>The xx<\/b><\/a> confirmed up and I discovered that <\/span>Romy<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Oliver<\/span><\/a> from The xx had been each queer, it kinda blew my thoughts and it was the primary time that I felt seen. <\/span>St. Vincent<\/b><\/a> was fairly large for me and actually made me perceive myself extra in faculty. <\/span>Frank Ocean<\/b><\/a>\u2014really, his tumblr coming-out letter, I wish to get it framed and put it up in my home as a result of that was so large not solely to me, however to music and tradition normally\u2014I feel that was across the time that I used to be really figuring myself out, so it meant rather a lot.<\/span><\/p>\n And the gorgeous factor that we\u2019re seeing now could be simply, extra. The floodgates have opened and now we have so many artists to select from.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n We all the time return to this dedication to amplify LGBTQIA+ artists. So whereas there\u2019s loads of different flashy elements of GLOW, and there\u2019s billboards and there\u2019s editorial help, behind all of that, the query we return to is, \u2018How do we tangibly influence the resources that LGBTQIA+ artists have?\u2019 We know within the trade that there are hurdles that marginalized artists face in creating and placing out music that different artists don\u2019t face.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We know that loads of artists solely get hit up in June throughout Pride to do campaigns. And then July 1 hits and there\u2019s no work to be discovered once more. Performative help wittles down an artist to their id. If you solely ask artists to activate throughout Pride, you ask them to present this boxed-in, performative model of themselves. For some artists, their id is essential to their work, proper? It drives their writing, their artistry. For different artists, they\u2019re simply artists who occur to be LGBTQIA+ and so they nonetheless ought to obtain the help that LGBTQIA+ artists want. And we all know that we, at Spotify, have a duty as the biggest music audio platform on the planet to fill in these gaps.<\/span> I’m homosexual, in order somebody who\u2019s in the neighborhood, this program means a lot to me. For instance, <\/span>Sam<\/b> Smith<\/b><\/a>, considered one of our 11 launch artists, their sophomore album, <\/span>The Thrill Of It All<\/span><\/i><\/a>, <\/span><\/i>was my coming-out album and it saved my life in so some ways. I do know firsthand how essential LGBTQIA+ artists are for illustration, but additionally for validation, and it simply means rather a lot to see an organization like Spotify actually doing the amplification work. And to be serving to lead the cost? I sort of must pinch myself rather a lot and notice like, yeah, this isn\u2019t only a marketing campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n LGBTQIA+ tradition is the tradition. LGBTQIA+ artists, because the starting of time, have formed\u00a0 a number of the largest genres that now we have\u2014from disco to jazz to pop\u2014and sadly, with the way in which our trade capabilities, artists aren\u2019t given the right tribute, help, or platform that matches the impact and influence of LGBTQIA+ artists\u2019 contributions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n To me, it\u2019s survival. Literally, \u201cI Will Survive\u201d by <\/span>Gloria<\/b> Gaynor<\/b><\/a> being a homosexual anthem is an instance, but it surely\u2019s about connecting folks, and it\u2019s about protected house. We know that in New York and Chicago and Detroit and LA, the ballroom house was the place Black and Latine queer of us who had been shunned had been in a position to go and shine. And music was the soundtrack to this. <\/span>Even when queer tradition and queer folks had been relegated to basements, to areas deemed \u201cunused\u201d or in \u201cdisarray,\u201d music saved these areas alive.<\/span> Music is how I made sense of my feelings rising up. It gave me language to explain how I felt and gave me validation to really feel assured in these feelings. Music is the soundtrack to our lives and to our survival, and it\u2019s the soundtrack to our pleasure. Music is that this inventive playground the place you\u2019re allowed to think about something. Music is probably the most tangible factor now we have to think about queer futures which can be happier and brighter and higher and freer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I lead our Equity Global Music Programs, corresponding to GLOW and <\/span>EQUAL<\/span><\/a>. I’m accountable for bringing our fairness ideas to life inside Spotify\u2019s 360 packages, which elevate and have fun artists for who they’re, all over the world. I lead the go-to-market technique via ideation, launch, and adoption. My position is concentrated on the imaginative and prescient of contributing to a music trade the place everyone seems to be pretty represented and included for who they’re, and wherever they’re from.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Within GLOW, my position is to take this system from ideation to launch and past, setting the general technique in the direction of the mission of celebrating and elevating LGBTQIA+ creators and serving customers all 12 months spherical and past cultural moments. By bringing collectively my experience in fairness packages and in worldwide technique and in music, I’ve the privilege of being the connector of consultants in over 20 totally different firm capabilities and music representatives for the 50+ international locations the place GLOW is dwell, to make sure that this program makes use of Spotify\u2019s sources as finest as potential to serve the group and honor its immense contribution to music and tradition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I grew up in a small city in rural Argentina, the place I didn\u2019t have any optimistic examples of individuals being accepted, included, and celebrated for who they had been. I migrated at a younger age, which uncovered me to extra expansive experiences round sexual orientation and id, but additionally to a brand new means of feeling totally different, of residing inside one other tradition. When I began working in music, which was all the time my ardour, I had extra optimistic experiences of inclusion via seeing colleagues from the group thrive and be impressed by the music itself, and I made it my mission to contribute to a world the place we are able to all really feel included and valued for who we’re.<\/span><\/p>\n Today, I really feel protected to be who I’m in most locations I inhabit, and I’ve the prospect to place my expertise, sources, and abilities again in service, for extra folks to hopefully really feel included and represented, too. To me, GLOW represents the chance and privilege to work inside an organization that’s effectively positioned to drive social change, the place persons are captivated with fairness and collect to take steps in that course.<\/span><\/p>\n I do know we dwell in a world that’s distant from fairness for all of us, that the difficulty is greater than music, and that we are able to\u2019t do it alone. But I additionally imagine within the energy of music, and I hope that GLOW can encourage and uplift extra of our voices to the narrative, contributing to a future world the place persons are free to be.<\/span><\/p>\n Tune into <\/span><\/i>GLOW<\/span><\/i><\/a> to listen to the newest, hottest songs coming from LGBTQIA+ artists all over the world.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\nPutting LGBTQIA+ artists entrance and middle<\/b><\/h2>\n
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Meet the staff behind GLOW<\/b><\/h2>\n
Lisa Ritchey, she\/her, Manager, Artist Partnership Team<\/b><\/h3>\n
![\"Lisa](\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/pr-newsroom-wp\/1\/2023\/01\/Image-from-iOS-966x1024.jpg\")
<\/h3>\nWhat is your position in bringing GLOW to life?<\/b><\/h3>\n
Why is GLOW essential to you?<\/b><\/h3>\n
Who are some queer artists or cultural icons who’ve impressed you?<\/b><\/h3>\n
Cahleb Derry, he\/him, Associate Manager, Music Marketing<\/b><\/h3>\n
![\"Cahleb](\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/pr-newsroom-wp\/1\/2023\/01\/HAK03402-683x1024.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWhat would you say is the ethos of GLOW?<\/b><\/h3>\n
<\/span><\/p>\nWhy is GLOW essential to you?<\/b><\/h3>\n
How does music empower queer communities?\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n
Bel Aztiria, she\/her, Equity Global Music Programs Lead<\/b><\/h3>\n
![\"Bel](\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/pr-newsroom-wp\/1\/2023\/01\/spotify-1025-768x1024.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWhat is your position in bringing GLOW to life?<\/b>
<\/b><\/h3>\nWhy is GLOW essential to you?<\/b>
<\/b><\/h3>\nWhat do you see as the way forward for this system?<\/b><\/h3>\n