At the beginning of 2022, Spotify shut down an internal studio that had been used to produce some of its original podcasts. 12 months later, the streaming service is promoting a different kind of Spotify studio: A fully-equipped production shop within the walls of its Los Angeles office.
Spotify laid out the creator-facing perks of its “At Mateo” facility in a post on its For The Record blog. The office is described as a “state-of-the-art music- and podcast-recording facility” filled with studios, lounges, and musical memorabilia. Visitors to the space can check out an amp used by the Stone Temple Pilots and a piano Norah Jones used to record her hit single ‘Don’t Know Why’.
Some artists have already visited this “vibey, comfortable, well-equipped recording studio,” as described by Spotify Senior Music Producer/Studio Development Lead William Garrett. Indie darlings Japanese Breakfast, Eurovision winners Kalush Orchestra, and classical pianist Lang Lang have all held recording sessions at Spotify’s Downtown L.A. gathering place.
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The office isn’t only catering to musicians. Podcasters have also made use of the available facilities. Influencers Rickey Thompson and Denzel Dion visited Spotify to record an episode of their show We Said What We Said, which is a Spotify original. The studios have also been used to support Spotify’s Sound Up initiative, which looks to increase diversity in podcasting.
Garett and Spotify Head of Production & Studio Facilities Chris D’Angelo touted the office’s collaborative feel. “It’s about democratization of access,” they said. “The act of creativity is about the making and breaking of connections. So the more people that you get playing around and trying to innovate, the more we’re going to start to see things that are really groundbreaking, really innovative, and really next-level ideas.”
This concept — a full-service studio operated by a major platform — is reminiscent of the YouTube Spaces that opened up across the world in the 2010s. Though those loci provided spaces where creators could network with one another, YouTube eventually abandoned the concept during the COVID-19 pandemic.
By putting its version of the YouTube Spaces inside of its workplace, Spotify is building a studio that could have more longevity. Since the Stockholm-based audio platform is courting creators around the world, it has plenty of reasons to launch more production spaces at its other offices.
