Song Start is a free video and podcast education series focusing on songwriting, production, the music business, and music & mindset. The series is "taught" by a diverse selection of some of the biggest names in music from John Legend to Sam Smith, Hayley Williams to Camilla Cabello, to Phoebe Bridgers and TOKiMONSTA, Take A Daytrip, and many more. This series is a jumping off point: it's where the song starts.

We wanted to create bite-sized pieces of education for songwriters and producers just starting out in the industry. We knew that different types of media suit different creators so we took the approach of pairing short-form video episodes (under 10 minutes) with longer podcast episodes (30-40 mins) and then a blog with further tips, tricks and resources.

We then broke out the material into four categories based on gaps we saw in the current industry education available to creators: songwriting, production, music business and mindset. We wanted to balance technical information with inspiration and helpful resources for business and mental health.

We decided to partner with prominent figures in the industry (e.g. John Legend, Sam Smith, Hayley Williams) to inspire interest and trust amongst our target audience, knowing that our unique place in the industry gives us the opportunity to work with and showcase high profile talent.

We divided 10 video and 10 podcast episodes between the categories listed above and mapped out a curriculum that would allow creators to dip in and out of content, but feel like they had the full picture if consumed all together. The videos were the focus of the series, and we used the podcast and blog to complement the content discussed in them.

It was crucial for us to lock down the curriculum before we locked down talent - education was more important to us than the face behind it - but once we had an idea of the key messages and takeaways we wanted to get across we came together to brainstorm the best people in the industry to partner with to land this content with us. For the talent, we wanted to make sure we covered a mix of experience, genre and notability.

We first began ideating on the series in late 2020, working on the curriculum in early 2021 and we were in full production by April 2021. Video production was completed over a series of three months, followed by podcast production and blog editorial right up until launch in October 2021.

This series was launched in conjunction with the non-profit Song Start (the series was named after them) and so we used our shared reach across channels to launch this series.

Alongside the preview launch event of 150 industry guests, we had a prominent press plan that included an exclusive with Variety of one of the episodes, alongside interviews with the non-profit founders; Ali Tamposi and Tamar Kaprelian, and then a push to our Noteable website, Spotify for Artists YouTube channel, and email and social channels across Noteable, Spotify for Artists and Song Start.

Though we’re still executing on a paid media campaign in 2022 to further the reach of the series, we’re excited to see the initial engagement and enthusiasm for the series, and requests for more content from creators watching across YouTube and the site.

Part of our goal was to drive awareness of the new ‘Noteable’ brand from Spotify for Artists, launched in February 2021 as the new home for songwriters, producers and publishers, as well as setting up Spotify and our sub-brands as thought leaders in this space. Engagement of our videos from October launch to February 2022 grew by 433% on Noteable’s Instagram, alongside a 5% growth in followers.

Programs like Song Start, alongside our other Noteable initiatives in 2021 have cemented Spotify as the premier partner for the publishing industry with our partners, and has drawn interest from stars including Tate Macrae and Dua Lipa to be involved.