Want More Spotify Listeners for Your Music? Its New Marquee Tool Can Help

Remember in The Matrix, when Agent Smith shows up while Neo is listening to his favourite rock band, and, instead of attacking him, recommends an even better rock band for Neo to enjoy? Some might see the world of The Matrix as a dystopian hell, but true music heads see that future as a land of opportunity, where computers and AI only exist to show us cool new music. Wait, what? You don’t remember that scene? Hm, maybe it was deleted.

In any case, the point is that, now, AI probably understands our musical tastes better than we do… and that’s not a bad thing. In the olden days, one had to listen to the radio or go to Borders (RIP) to discover new music, mulling around for hours at listening kiosks or hoping the dude at the store would grace us with something cool and unknown. If you fancy yourself a music enjoyer™, you have probably already heard of (and maybe use!) music streaming service Spotify, and, if so, you may be aware that one of the benefits of using Spotify to listen to music is that its own version of AI Agent Smith (who is a DJ there—probably) simply wants to show you good, new music. As a listener, that’s an awesome benefit—as an artist, however, that can be an extremely powerful tool to harness.

Spotify for Artists, the maker-oriented wing of Spotify that aims to help creators produce and promote their tunes, has a new service called Marquee, a programme for music marketers (or anyone, TBH) to promote music to both free and premium Spotify users. Like, we all get it, you (or your client) make music and you want people to listen to it. Seems natural—in fact, many musicians across history have approached music this way. With Marquee, you can create campaigns that send full-screen, sponsored recs of your music to people who either have previously enjoyed your tunes or who the algorithm seems reasonably sure will do so in the future. Here at VICE, we simply love to see it when companies use science to fix climate change isolate and re-engage active listeners and locate new fans based on streaming behaviour.

The point of Spotify—and of Marquee—is twofold: Artists can get their music to the widest audiences possible, and listeners stay on the cutting edge of knowing about songs before they hear them on TikTok, ensuring maximum clout. This, friends, is why we create and consume art. And, like Agent Smith, the Spotify algorithm is always growing, learning, and becoming more powerful, meaning that the more feedback it gets from listeners, the better it can promote campaigns within Marquee. 

As a Marquee user, you’ll get campaign results on how people are engaging with your music, which will help you find new fans and keep them hooked on your music (assuming it’s good, which it surely is, our brothers and sisters in future Grammy glory). 

Listen, whether it’s The Matrix, Grand Theft Auto VI, or some programme we don’t even know about yet—or, you know, simply capitalism, LOL—we’re all in the system. You may as well take advantage of it. Good music deserves to be heard, and using Spotify for Artists’ Marquee, you can ensure that you’re doing the most to share your art. 

Once you conquer Spotify, all that will be left to do is starting a clothing or makeup line that you’ll low-key peddle via your reality show that you’re starring in for money to fuel a private jet to take you to shows you book because people found your music online. Full circle.

Learn more about Spotify for Artists' Marquee programme here.

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