Spotify Is Here

When Spotify was preparing to launch in Africa, the obvious move was a press release — a document, an email, maybe an event. We wanted to do something that actually felt like Spotify.

So instead of writing about the launch, we let the continent's music do the talking. We brought together artists from different genres across Africa to record their own versions of the press release — turned into spoken word, sung, freestyled, however each artist wanted to interpret it. Media received a physical drop with a pair of earbuds and a link to a private Spotify playlist, where they could choose which artist's version they wanted to hear the news in.

It was a way of introducing Spotify to Africa by handing the mic to the people who make the music the platform was built to carry — turning a routine announcement into a showcase of the talent already on the continent.

This one didn't end up going into production — the client moved in a different direction before launch — but it remains one of my favourite concepts for how a global brand could enter a new market by genuinely celebrating what's already there, rather than talking over it.