This Pride, Spotify is encouraging the queer community to make noise, make their presence known, and make their own rules with a single rallying cry: CLAIM YOUR SPACE. With a series of activations, this global campaign is aimed at creating permanent space, both physical and digital, for the LGTBQIA+ community.
For too long, there have been glaring gaps in the traditional historiography of music, gaps that often served to minimize or completely erase LGBTQIA+ creators’ indispensable contributions to the development of entire music genres and modern audio culture as a whole. And so, for this year’s Pride, we focused on harnessing the full power of our platform to highlight iconic as well as more emerging queer artists and podcasters, asserting this community’s rightful place within the canon and within the culture.
“Spotify partnered with muralist Ggggrimes in creating a mural celebrating the vibrancy of the LGBTQ+ community in Detroit and telling the story of their critical role in the house and techno scenes, as well as in activism in the city. Ggggrimes is a 25-year-old Black queer artist from New York City, now based in Philly, and identifies as bisexual and non-binary using they/them pronouns. The mural shines a spotlight on the important contributions of featured artists and activists local to the Detroit area including K-HAND, DJ MINX, Griz, Ruth Ellis and Dr. Kofi in telling their own unique stories. DJ MINX also curated a playlist reflecting the sound of Pride in Detroit.
The mural is being given as a gift to the Ruth Ellis Center in Detroit, an organization that provides trauma-informed services to LGBTQ+ youth. The mural will live on 77 Victor St, outside of their second location. Spotify is also directly supporting the Ruth Ellis Center’s important work with a donation.”
Make sure to check out:
- Spotify’s annual Pride Hub: A dedicated editorial hub that will promote LGBTQIA+ artists, podcasters, and playlists, as well as showcase exclusive Spotify Clips video content from artists including Kehlani, Hayley Kiyoko, Hope Tala, Claud, Urias, ILOVEMAKONNEN, Princess Nokia, Leland, and Kaydence all month long.
- Original Pride Singles: We’re continuing the Pride Singles program we launched last June by working with queer artists Dua Saleh and Lido Pimienta to create a new set of original Pride singles. Stay tuned for these to drop later this month on June 14.
- Pride Venue Playlists: We’ve teamed up with queer bars and clubs across the world, including Casita del Campo in LA, Alibi Lounge in New York, A League of Her Own in DC, Homoelectric in Manchester, Pxssy Palace in London, and Punka in Bristol to create signature playlists for each venue, celebrating these essential community spaces after a brutally difficult year for nightlife
- Pride Cities Playlists: Spotify is launching city-specific playlists curated by queer local musicans. Tune in for a taste of DJ Minx’s Detroit, Fancy Hagood’s Nashville, Big Freedia’s New Orleans, MUNA’s LA, and more.
- Social Share Cards: Listeners can express themselves on social with Spotify-created Pride cards, filling in the blanks to show off what Pride sounds like to them in their own city, country, or community.
- Pride Murals: Spotify is also working with queer artists in Detroit, Nashville, and New Orleans—places where the queer community has been instrumental to the music scene, but their stories are often untold—to commission permanent murals celebrating these groundbreaking local LGBTQIA+ artists and activists, in close collaboration with queer community spaces and The Ally Coalition. Look out for these murals as they take shape.
At the heart of this global campaign is a desire to permanently create more space for queer representation both on our platform and in our culture. At each touch point across the campaign, Spotify will be donating directly to all of our key partners, including queer venues and local organziations such as BreakOUT! in New Orleans, Just Us at Oasis Center in Nashville, and Ruth Ellis Center in Detroit.
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