Making music change the world

With popular and up-and-coming artists alike speaking out against and even boycotting the platform, Spotify needed to do something to change its image.

But how could a company rooted in tech prove it truly believed in the power of music?

Problem

Spotify needed to show the world that they were more than a tech company—they were a music company. 

Insight

Music is a part of all of our lives, everywhere on Earth. Even those of us who seem most removed from it. People suffering from hearing loss.

Solution

In Palawan, Philippines, there is a large hearing impaired community. We travelled there to bring hearing, and music, to those living in silence. We set out to prove: music can change the world.

The film became a huge success. So we went back to Spotify with an idea to make music's impact even bigger.

Music can change a mood, a day, a conversation, or a neighborhood. If we let it.

So we created a platform, powered by Indiegogo crowdfunding technology and profits from certain songs on Spotify, to raise money for music related causes all over the world.

Results

We helped fit almost 1,000 people suffering from hearing loss with their very first hearing aid, and created a platform for ongoing music-based charity initiatives that is still active today. That alone is a huge success.

First Song won Best Film at the 2016 Webby Awards. The film was featured on Spotify's Facebook page, with hundreds of shares, thousands of likes, and hundreds of thousands of views—becoming the highest viewed video on the Spotify page at the time. 

Daniel Ek, founder of Spotify, posted about the campaign on his own Facebook account, calling it "epic, and beautifully shows the reason I'm so proud of what the team is accomplishing."

*I was the strategist, creative and film producer on this campaign. This idea began as a proactive campaign. I had the original idea, built out a strategic deck, sold it through to Spotify, then helped lead the team in creating our film and building the platform around it.