In Support of Queer Artists, Spotify Launches Global LGBTQ Music Program GLOW

by Team Iamsafeatwork

06-07-2023

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The LGBTQ community has a lengthy history of positively impacting music history, whether through the invention of whole genres, the success of mainstream queer musicians, or other means. Spotify now wants to help enhance that impact.

GLOW, the streaming service’s latest music programme. The project, like sibling equity global music programmes EQUAL and Frequency for female and Black producers, is primarily geared towards LGBTQ artists, intending to “elevate LGBTQIA+ creators, both on and off platform,” according to Spotify.

GLOW will have a year-round centre on the platform holding LGBTQ-dedicated playlists for fans to discover new music by queer-identifying artists, with new playlists expected to be released each month to achieve that objective. One of these playlists is the same-named global flagship playlist, which features LGBTQ voices from across the world and is updated monthly with new content.

GLOW, like previous Spotify equity programmes, will benefit from a “360 programme,” which will provide opportunities for editorial and marketing partnerships with other major brands, as well as charitable giving to organisations supporting LGBTQ arts causes, such as QORDS, Black trans Femmes in the Arts (The BTFA Collective), It Gets Better, and others.

GLOW will also highlight various LGBTQ musicians each month, with 11 featured at launch, including Sam Smith, Arlo Parks, Tove Lo, and Pabllo Vittar. Future highlight artists will be featured on Spotify’s editorial channel For the Record, as well as on a Times Square billboard.

The GLOW launch is a bright light in the midst of Spotify’s news on Monday that it will be laying down 6% of its worldwide employees and stepping down as chief content and advertising business officer Dawn Ostroff. “I hoped to sustain the strong tailwinds from the pandemic and believed that our broad global business and lower risk to the impact of a slowdown in ads would insulate us,” Daniel Ek said in an email to workers, which was posted on the company’s website. “In retrospect, I was overly optimistic in investing ahead of our revenue growth.”