Amazon Music's Alex Luke has opened up on the company's global streaming plans in a new interview with Music Week.
Luke, the firm's global head of programming and content strategy, will appear at the inaugural Music Week Tech Summit at The O2 on September 26, where he will be discuss the huge impact voice has had on streaming in The Power Of Voice session. For registration, head to musicweektechsummit.com.
Speaking in the latest issue of Music Week, the former Apple and EMI A&R executive said: "We are really looking at streaming music through a global lens. We have spent this year launching a number of global playlists - we launched Fuego Latino; Latin music has skyrocketed in popularity and there’s an enormous European interest in Latin music. There’s youth interest in Latin in music, and Fuego Latino is giving us an opportunity to shine a spotlight on that music globally.
"We also have a country playlist called Country Heat - a global look at country music. One of the things that technology is driving is a globalisation of the music business. It means that if you are an artist in Canada, Australia or Germany, you can potentially get a global look much faster and much easier than you could in years past.”
Alexa, Amazon's voice assistant, has helped to harness the power of this global approach, as a growing number of subscribers sign up to the online giant's platform.
"We added an Alexa feature for local popularity, where you can ask Alexa to play popular music in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Manchester or Paris, and she can pull in the top songs from a certain location," said Luke. "Programming features that highlight music from other territories have been exceedingly popular in amplifying the cues we are getting from our customers."
Seattle-based Luke confirmed that Amazon would be launching more global playlists before the end of the year.
"It’s a service we can provide artists and customers," he said. "Customers are looking for a singular destination where they can find the music in very specific genres and niches that they love.
"With services like Amazon Music being global and being so easily accessible, reaching a large audience with a singular destination is meaningful, it’s powerful. If my programming team finds a country artist or a Latin artist that they believe in, and they can champion them to millions of fans around the world, it’s a really positive thing for everyone.”
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