How CMA Fest's Spotify House has grown country's streaming power and will it do it again this year?
Spotify House returns to Lower Broadway's Ole Red for the fifth consecutive year during CMA Fest.
The event will be open Thursday, June 6, through Saturday, June 8, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. CT daily. All shows will be open to the public, and space will be limited to first-come, first-served access.
Here's why 2024's edition will likely feature an artist (or two) who could have massive streaming hits before next year's festival.
Dan + Shay, Bailey Zimmerman and others set the table
For the past six months, Spotify's Head of Label Partnerships, Nashville, has been Tim Foisset.
It's not ridiculous to say that Spotify House exists at CMA Fest because Foisset overperformed at his job at Warner Music Nashville, working with the label's streaming partners.
Between 2018 and 2023, Warner-signed Dan + Shay's "Tequila" and Justin Bieber duet "10,000 Hours" combined for nearly 20 million in single-equivalent sales — moreover, in Dec. 2023, the former song crossed the threshold of having been streamed one billion times since its release.
Less than 1 percent of the 100 million songs on the platform achieve that status.
Warner Music-signed Bailey Zimmerman has also achieved four country radio chart-toppers in roughly 18 months, derived from singles that have already amassed 12 million in single-equivalent sales.
"Dan + Shay and Bailey Zimmerman's success are leading country artists to be considered as national and international stars," says Foisset. He points at Morgan Wallen's recent pairing with Post Malone (he has five songs in Spotify's most-streamed songs ever) for "I Had Some Help" and appearing with Drake (three songs in Spotify's most-streamed songs ever) in his recent music video for "You Broke My Heart" as highlighting where this all heads next.
The power of collaborations
At Spotify House in 2019, Lil Nas X appeared alongside Billy Ray Cyrus to perform "Old Town Road."
Thus, it's possible that Tanner Adell, Dasha, Wyatt Flores, or Shaboozey could emerge from the Spotify House stage to partner with Spotify streaming leader The Weeknd. Recent ACM Awards appearances by Ed Sheeran with Luke Combs and Dua Lipa with Chris Stapleton leave only the "Blinding Lights" vocalist, Coldplay, Eminem, Imagine Dragons and Bruno Mars as Spotify favorites who have yet to jump down the country rabbit hole.
Five dozen artists will appear at Spotify House over CMA Fest weekend. Five potential, fresh, crossover, format-shattering mega-streaming winner collaborations are on the table.
Of course, chart-topping stars like 30-time No. 1 artist Luke Bryan, Grand Ole Opry member Ashley McBryde and recent award winners like Jordan Davis and Old Dominion are already present.
Breaking past stars of the moment and established names could require dangerously chasing sounds and styles that yield those collaborations.
Retaining authenticity after viral success
Spotify House co-host Lily Rose enters into the conversation at this point.
In 2020, she emerged as a star on the rise via her track "Villain."
Three years later, she paired with Diplo for his "Thomas Wesley" country-meets-house project track "Sad In The Summer."
Yes, they're connected (Diplo as an artist, Rose through being signed to Republic-distributed Big Loud) via Republic Records. But even deeper, Rose's vocal stylings and viral reach paired well with what Diplo needed as both a producer and an artist.
"I'm still trying to write the best song possible," Rose says. Chasing the explosive potential that streaming and digital acclaim allow is alluring, but the potential for inauthenticity to keep a new song from resonating looms significantly.
"Imagine I tried to write a low melody chorus over a country-style hip-hop beat like Morgan (Wallen). In the time it takes for a song to get released and become viral, my fans and fans of the genre will be over that. Chasing sounds for that success is what many artists do, but achieving crossover success similarly requires remaining true to yourself."
Spotify House broadens country music's community and consumer culture
Jackie Augustus has been Spotify's lead for country and folk artist partnerships for the past two years. In prior years, she worked in similar roles with record mogul Scooter Braun and Instagram.
She's an experience and influence-driven creative whose career began 15 years ago when she launched the viral Justin Bieber fan account, @BieberArmy, on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
For her, the question is simple.
In 2023, the streaming revenue-led American music industry placed five diverse, country, and folk-inspired songs on top of Billboard's all-genre Hot 100 chart. Streaming algorithms and playlists are shooting artists like Oliver Anthony and Zach Bryan into the music industry stratosphere, while artists lik e Beyonce?, and Post Malone are already pairing with at least a dozen more performers at varying levels of renown.
Thus, the potential exists for streaming-pushed country music to develop a consistent group of ten artists who could be dependably at or near the top 10 of Billboard's Hot 100.
She believes the strategy for that materializes best at installations like Spotify House.
"New country fans love all variations of country music. Their curiosity accelerates a journey and connection to the genre through new and old artists. Overnight, an exciting moment is possible where listening habits will cultivate and grow (an unprecedented) national and global community and consumer culture."
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Can Spotify House at CMA Fest boost country music for another year?
