Spotify was pushing the musical experience boundaries in Austin at this year’s South By Southwest by partnering with Billboard, McDonald’s, Foursquare and Obscura Digital both at its Spotify House branded space and its flagship Spotify Live Concert.
Between 11 and 15 March, artists appeared daily at Spotify House: an intimate, relaxed setting at 1100 East Cesar Chavez Street designed to take music fans away from the relentless SXSW hustle.
Spotify House hosted an impressive line-up of artists including Jamie N Commons, Diamond Rings, Flight Facilities, Flume, Angel Haze, Gregory Alan Isakov, Ivan & Alyosha, Neon Indian, Tom Odell, Pacific Air, The Last Bison, Sam Spiegel, Twenty|One|Pilots, Wallpaper and Robert DeLong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqAj6_X6qRo
The main Spotify Live Show itself, a free ticketed concert that fans simply RSVP’d to online at www.sxspotify.com, took place on 13 March.
Spotify linked with fast food giant McDonald’s to deliver a live stream of the event to fans of the artists at home through the exclusive media partner, Billboard.
The concert featured several headline acts including Kendrick Lamar, CAZZETTE, and Youngblood Hawke and DJ Hesta Prynn.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3v2A76858g
Spotify Live also featured an innovative bespoke multimedia installation by vision and technology outfit Obscura Digital.
The objective of this hi-tech sound a light show was to create an immersive experience that not only amplifies the live performances via a real-time, audio-reactive music visualisation system that has the effect of transporting audiences to another musical dimension.
With 136 ft of projections and high-resolution imagery, Obscura aimed to create a new type of dynamic concert immersion. The objective was for the giant 7,500ft warehouse space to become a ‘teleporter, taking people on an optical journey from the streets of Austin into the future of musical expression’.
Another strand to the music outfit’s activity was to sponsor a SXSW-specific Foursquare Badge. Users could simply earn the badge by following Spotify on Foursquare and checking in at five of the venues where they’ve left tips around Austin.
A single check-in at the Spotify House or the Spotify Live concert also sufficed.
Each day the first 20 badge-holders to show their SXSW Spotify badges at Spotify House won a pair of custom Spotify/AIAIAI headphones and saw their names added to the VIP list for the Spotify Live concert.
Comment
This sort of SXSW multi-partner activation aims to amplify and extend Spotify’s core offering and highlight its main mission.
The digital music service, which now offers on-demand access to over 20 million tracks in 20 countries, big picture objective is to make music available instantly to everyone, wherever and whenever they desire and to make it easier for listeners to discover, manage and share music.
But by building multiple alliances with brands that ranged from giant global consumer brands to vision specialists and a media partnership it promote, incentivise, ticket, amplify and deliver a whole new live music experience both to those at SXSW and those streaming online.
Links
SpotifyLive
Spotify SXSW Twitter
https://twitter.com/search?q=sxspotify
Spotify Website
Billboard & SpotifyLive SXSW
Foursquare & Spotify At SXSW
http://aboutfoursquare.com/spotify-teams-with-foursquare-for-a-music-themed-sxsw-badge/
Obscura Digital
http://www.obscuradigital.com/
