Daily Times

Given the importance of music culture emerging from the country, Spotify hosted its first Masterclass for the entire artist community in Lahore to create awareness of music streaming trends, listener growth and new features.

Among other leading voices from the music industry, who attended the event, there was also a renowned music producer, curator and artist, Zulfiqar Jabbar Khan, also known as Xulfi, sharing his perspective on the Pakistani music industry.

Artists, artist managers and labels had the opportunity to learn about how they can maximize their growth on Spotify through the session on the Spotify for Artists and panel discussion with Xulfi on the trends in the Pakistani music industry, making music, pitching for playlists and the relevance of audio streaming.

The series of Masterclasses being conducted by Khan FM, Artist & Label Partnerships Manager for Pakistan, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka at Spotify in Pakistan are designed to provide aspiring musicians from the local landscape to comprehensively embrace and utilize the tools that are available to them through the streaming service, helping creators build and grow audiences with new and enhanced tools. With the first event conducted in November last year in Karachi, the Masterclass format has evolved, adding a distinctive touch to it for the latest edition. The event enabled artists to learn more about how Spotify can advance their careers substantially through its massive local and global outreach along with the breadth of offerings that it provides access to.

Spotify also showcased a suite of tools that help artists find the fans who’ll love their music most. Here are a few of the new features they will soon find in the Campaigns section of Spotify for Artists:

Discovery Mode is a tool through which artists and their teams identify priority songs, and Spotify will add that signal to the algorithms that shape personalized listening sessions. Today, Discovery Mode is directly available within Spotify for Artists and accessible to a wider range of artists and their teams, including thousands of independently distributed artists and labels.

The company also shared more details on the next revenue line it wants to help artists grow: merchandise and live events.

New Concert and Merch Discovery tools will help make sure concert-goers never miss another show. Listeners will begin to see merch offers and concert listings in far more places across the app. If a show catches a fan’s eye, they can tap a new ‘interested’ button to save the listing to their own calendar in the Live Events Feed. Users can adjust their location and browse concerts worldwide, all personalized to their taste.

Spotify is also expanding its Fans First program to include more artists, ensuring top listeners receive emails and notifications that give them special access to concert pre-sales and merch exclusives.

Held at the iconic Haveli Barood Khana, located in the Walled City of Lahore, the event featured an interactive and immersive music experience to elevate the vibe altogether in the most innovative way possible. The Masterclass was designed not just to pique interest but to deeply engage those attending the event, in a unique journey that showed the music development trajectory in the country from ancient times to nowadays.

The event had over 110 artists and their teams who registered for attending the Spotify for Artists Masterclass. Some prominent names from the music industry in attendance included Talal Qureshi, Rizzy Rozeo, Hasan & Roshaan, Taha G, Maanu, Members of Rock bands Karakoram, Bayaan & many more.

“Our objective with Spotify for Artists Masterclass has always been to provide an easily accessible platform that puts listener data directly in the hands of artists so that it can be utilized to the max!” said Khan FM, Artist & Label Partnerships Manager, Pakistan, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka at Spotify.