Primavera Sound made a grand return for its 22nd edition over the weekend in Barcelona, and thanks to Amazon Music, audiences could tune in from all over the world.
As the festival’s strategic sponsor, Amazon Music have been livestreaming Primavera – sponsored by Cupra –for three years. In its latest coverage, featuring live performances, behind-the-scenes interviews with fans and artists, podcast episodes and even a VIP terrace, the global platform's offering was bigger than ever.
Audiences from across the globe were able to watch performances in realtime from the likes including Troye Sivan, The Last Dinner Party, Ethel Cain, Justice, Omar Apollo, Phoenix, PJ Harvey, The National and many, many more via five channels on Amazon Music’s platforms Twitch and Prime. The livestream was covered by 31 cameras across five stages throughout the festival’s site, Parc Del Fòrum, during the weekend.
“At Amazon, we’re really committed to fandom, and getting the fans excited about the artists they love,” says Mish Mayer, Amazon Music’s head of production, EU, global content team, speaking to Music Week from Amazon’s production truck onsite. “But it’s really important to know that we’re filming these [performances] not to make you feel like you’re missing out – this is about creating a different experience.”
Pointing at one of the screens showing a close-up shot from Pulp’s Thursday night set, she adds: “We film for the people watching at home, and what you’re getting is intimacy and closeness – you’re never going to be as close as this to Jarvis Cocker if you’re seeing it live!”
Amazon Music’s coverage also offered behind-the-scenes content from creators, influencers and fans, as well as two Amazon Music exclusive episodes on the podcast series Reyes Del Palique hosted by Fizpireta and Uyalbert, which were recorded from the festival grounds over the weekend.
Phoenix, who headlined the festival’s opening day on the Amazon Music stage, and Justice, who played the festival’s Estrella Damm stage, also released their own Amazon Music Original tracks – Phoenix’s Winter Solstice featuring Blood Orange and Justice’s Afterimage (JusticeRemix) – in celebration of the festival, which are available on the platform now.
The festival’s Amazon Music stage was also home to a star-studded lineup including Charli XCX, Deftones, Rels B and Peggy Gou, and for the first time this year, Amazon Music’s very own terrace offered a VIP viewing overlooking the stage.
“It’s such a premium spot,” says Claire Imoucha, head of Amazon Music, Spain. “It’s part of us growing on our offer of how we approach the onsite experience for the fans.”
Pictured: Amazon Music's livestream production team
Here, we meet up with Imoucha and director of global content and artist marketing Kirdis Postelle on site at the festival to hear all about how the platform's biggest ever livestream of the Barcelona festival came to life...
First of all, Primavera is a legendary festival and Amazon Music is a global company that can theoretically partner with anyone. What is it about the festival which makes you want to continue to partner? Why does the collaboration make so much sense?
Claire Imoucha: “This is the third year that we’re doing the livestream of Primavera. The first year was very local, only on Twitch, last year we got bigger but with a similar proposal to this year, and this year we’ve added even more elements. The working relationship [between Amazon Music and Primavera] is really positive and the lineup of the festival is aligned with our philosophy of what the Amazon Music livestream of the festival can offer.”
Kirdis Postelle: “Everyone thinks their festival is special, but Primavera is a really, really special one. It’s one of the biggest ones in Europe, every year there’s a great lineup and what I love about it, is that it’s generational. You get a broad swathe of artists that fans want to see, and we get the opportunity to bring that to audiences globally – you don’t have to get a ticket to Spain and see your favourite artist, you can sit on your couch and still feel like you’re experiencing being there.”
Can you expand on why having a 'generational lineup' was important to the effectiveness of your livestream?
KP: “For us, with livestreaming, it’s important that we are delivering for all of our customers, so although a generational lineup isn't necessarily something that we look for in every festival, in the bigger ones we do, because we want to make sure that we deliver for all of our fans and people don’t feel left out.”
What does the Primavera coverage this year represent in terms of Amazon Music’s lean into livestreaming, on a broader scale?
KP: “If we’re going to go into a partnership, we just want to make the most out of that we possibly can and this has been a great one. For example, when we saw an opportunity to bring podcast creators [to the festival], it’s not something we’ve traditionally done and it was good for them too. We just want to always deliver for our partners, for our creators and for artists the most we can. And we also want to deliver for our customers, which is why we did the Amazon Music Terrace this year – because obviously you want to see your favourite artists from the best vantage point!”
When Music Week talked to Amazon Music’s GM Ryan Redington earlier this year, he spoke about how livestream viewership has grown “tremendously year-on-year”, and that the company has gotten “much better at marketing and understanding how to reach fans in realtime”. With that in mind, how are you marketing Primavera across the world? Are there new strategies in place to ensure the reach is truly global?
KP: “It’s not necessarily about new marketing techniques, but I think what we have done, for festivals in particular, is that we’ve gone from what was largely a US strategy to a global strategy. So we’re livestreaming festivals around the world instead of focusing on just the US. We did Vive Latino in Mexico, obviously Primavera and we have a couple of other ones that haven’t been announced yet.”
CI: “We are also delivering on different channels on Twitch – the US one, in the UK, the Spanish one, the Latin American one – so that’s a direct approach for local customers.”
And what can you tell us about the reach you are expecting this year compared to last year?
KP: “Well, let’s just say, this year, the festival that we livestreamed in Mexico – Vive Latino – was our most watched festival ever, then we did Stagecoach which surpassed that. And I expect Primavera will surpass that too.”
There aren't many festival coverages which offer the same amount of behind-the-scenes content on fans' experiences as well as artists. What is the value that kind of content adds to a livestream?
CI: “It’s about making the livestream different from the real experience, but just as good. And I'd say that's about the social media strategy, it’s a behind-the-scenes of how fans relate to a festival and how they're experiencing it. It’s another approach to how we present the festival and how people can really enjoy it, so you have artists we have interviewed on social media, as well as influencers and fans.”
Finally, will the content be online forever?
KP: “No, it was a limited time. There’s a couple of things that live on, the clips of the Amazon Music originals like Phoenix’s performance, but it was all live, it was one shot, and [it was about] being there in the moment!”
