Improve your storytelling with songs from Spotify
To help creators add more dimension to audio shows, Spotify and Anchor recently launched a new feature wrapping together talk and music. By combining your voice and unique commentary with entire songs from Spotify into one shareable mixed-media playlist, the possibilities for documenting the past, or envisioning a new audio future, are endless. This new tool is instrumental for storytellers of all backgrounds, genres, and at different levels of experience.
As the entrypoint for conversation, a memory time capsule, or artistic expression, music provides such rich context for story. Whether you’re a musician, DJ, radio host, songwriter or even a poet, you understand how valuable personalizing content can be.
If you’re thinking of becoming a mixed media creator or simply exploring ways to drive engagement for your existing brand, here are some reasons to consider creating a show combining music and talk with Anchor.
Share your narrative
How many times have you tried to remember the name of that ONE song to then share a memory about it? You remember where you were, who you were with and how you felt. You can share the nostalgic sides of your story now by adding full songs into the mix for context. Your narrative is not always just what you say, it’s how you say it — so say it with music now!
Go behind the scenes
If you’re a musician or songwriter, you can use music and talk to create verbal liner notes and bring dimension to your creation process and collaborators — expanding beyond words on album art or dedications on social media posts. DJ’s — you can now add song commentary to your best playlists, connecting on a more personal level with fans worldwide.
Make real connections
Building and creating stronger bonds has never been more important during this time and now you can engage safely and digitally with your audience while adding value through personalized content. Whether you’re supporting or leading a community of millions, or you just want to communicate with your family on a regular basis without giving a tech tutorial to your uncle, sharing music with talk segments can make for deeper connection points and conversation starters.
Collaborate with other creators
Feed off of each other’s creative energy by sharing music memories or making some new ones. For example, you could connect with that one friend you FaceTime every week and start an east coast vs. west coast hip hop battle, bringing in perspective based on your locations. Maybe you want to make a mixtape for that special someone and instead of writing on the CD in Sharpie, you could curate a thoughtful playlist with little love notes in between each song to share and update seasonally.
Use Anchor’s technology to collaborate with people remotely. It’s easy to slide into a DM and make a new friend these days — take it step further and invite fellow artists to the show. Try sketching out ideas by sending Voice Messages back and forth, or Record With Friends with Anchor to create audio segments for your talk show and seamlessly combine them with music.
Show your process
The creative process is complicated, time consuming and nonlinear. Try using this new mixed-media tool as a way to dissect your creative process, get feedback from the community, or explore new ways of working. Dig into your back catalog or the archives of an artist you love to resurface key music moments, or show the evolution of a sound.
Grow your audience
With the new normal leaving us mostly inside — building and engaging with community can be challenging. A way to reframe this challenge is by thinking of it as an opportunity to connect more deeply and grow your audience. New formats like mixed-media can also uncover a layer of discoverability — putting this type of content on Spotify and in front of potentially new audiences. Track your growth with audience analytics on Anchor to better understand who’s listening.
Finding new ways to tell your story or share someone else’s is valuable and necessary. With music as one of the most powerful connectors, the ability to insert it into a story can add context, dimension, truth, and impact. Already on the path, a new music and talk show pulls back the layers on rock and roll’s history exploring the lives of music pioneers like Chuck Berry and The Rolling Stones on Everglades Rhythm. Tying in astrology, ASTROBOPS, takes listeners through songs paired by artist zodiac signs with creative, bite-sized talk intermissions. Recontextualizing groundbreaking cross-genre albums, Oisín Quinn dives into classics from Radiohead, Arcade Fire, and Kendrick Lamar on the Quinntessentials show. Inspiration can strike anywhere — find some in these new shows — or dream up your own show using the new music and talk format.
Now, seamless, dimensional storytelling combining voice and music opens up a new format to explore. Helping you reach more people, showcase your personality, create transparency, and most importantly — tell better stories — mixing up your format can help unlock new streams of creativity.
Ready to start creating your own show with music? You can sign up for Anchor or download the free Anchor app. To learn more, visit blog.anchor.fm/music.
