A new social spot called ‘Introducing FIFA Sound: Where Music & Football Come Together’ from introduces a new music initiative from world football’s governing body. FIFA Sound blends the worlds of music and football bringing together players, musicians and fans who share their love of the game through music.
Thus leveraging both the rise of podcasts and audio streaming and the ongoing blending of sport and entertainment. Launched on 13 January, the first initiative launched by a tie up between FIFA and Universal Music For Brands is the ‘FIFA PlayOn Podcast’.
This eight-episode series sees co-hosts Liam Payne (a former member of boy band One Direction) and sports journalist Jaydee Dyer bring together word-class players and artists.
Episode 1 sees Croatian midfielder Ivan Rakitic (formerly of Barcelona and now playing at Sevilla) and Colombian band Morat in front of the microphone and can be accessed on the FIFA Sound PlayOn Podcast.
Other pairings in early episodes will include Carli Lloyd and Rachel Platten, plus Asisat Oshoala and Tiwa Savage, with future episodes also set to include Deyna Castellanos, Lele Pons and Wretch 32.
The strategy behind the project is that as the audience for streaming audio programming grows, FIFA will adopt a cross-platform approach with future episodes of FIFA PlayOn scheduled to appear every Wednesday on Amazon Music, Apple Music, Google Podcasts, Spotify and other streaming platforms. Plus the players will post playlists of their favourite music on Spotify.
“FIFA’s vision is to make football truly global, accessible and inclusive,” Jean-François Pathy, FIFA’s director of marketing, said in a statement. “The crossover between football and music underscores this wider cultural relevance. Both are universal languages and have the power to create unrivaled emotions. It’s a natural fit to bring them together.”
Speaking about the announcement of the series, Liam Payne added: “I can’t wait for everyone to hear what we’ve been working on with FIFA. The PlayOn Podcast has been such a journey – it’s been awesome having these incredible players and special guests come together and exchange life experiences from both on and off the pitch, all through the lens of music.”
Olivier Robert-Murphy, the Executive Vice President of Universal Music Group for Brands, said, “We’re delighted to be able to launch this collaboration between FIFA and Universal Music Group, which brings together two of the world’s biggest and most influential passion points – football and music – to create a series of unique fan experiences. Starting with the launch of the PlayOn Podcast series, these initiatives will showcase the symbiosis and shared bonds between the world’s best footballers and musicians alongside the fans that idolise them globally.”
Comment:
This crossover is yet another example of a sports property leveraging the erosion of the traditional silos which once divided sport and entrainment as the football global governing body seeks to broaden its appeal and reach the growing audience for streamed audio programming.
This has seen the global audience grow from 900m monthly listeners at the start of 2020 to more than 1bn at the start of 2021 (according to research by PwC) and as seen a parallel rise in marketer podcast investment by around 22%.
Play On is the first of several new initiatives that FIFA will be launching in 2021 and beyond as part of its strategic collaboration with Universal Music Group for Brands.
Links:
FIFA
Universal Music For Brands
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