Monday, Oct 24, 2022 • 22min
11. Turning A Passion For Music Into A Job, With Federica Tremolada
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Today we’re focusing on the music industry by talking to a leader in the audio streaming economy, Federica Tremolada, Managing Director Southern & Eastern Europe at Spotify and Bocconi alumna.
This is for any listener who has a passion for music and wants to understand where that industry is heading.
Referenced links: EQUAL on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/genre/equal-page
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Talking about
Speakers
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Federica Tremolada
Virginia Stagni
Vera
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Transcript
Verified
Federica Tremolada
00:01
We are building culture as we speak, as part of a platform.
Share
Virginia Stagni
00:09
This is the Talent Show, a new podcast series from FT Talent, a hub of innovation from the
Financial Times
hosted by under-thirties for behind their thirties around the world. This first series is in partnership with Bocconi University
, a leading higher education institution of business and managerial advancements. I'm Virginia Stagni and this the guide you need to drive innovation and change.Share
00:38
Today, we're focusing on the music industry by talking with a leader in the audio streaming economy, visits for any listener who has a passion for music and wants to understand where that industry is adding. Here is our conversation with Federica Tremolada, managing director of Southern and Eastern Europe at the
Spotify
and Bocconi
alumna.Share
01:00
Thank you so much Federica for being with us today.
Share
Federica Tremolada
01:03
Good morning everyone and thanks so much for having me here.
Share
Virginia Stagni
01:07
We would love to explore a bit about your career journey, maybe understand how your career began and how you became interested in the entertainment industry and specifically in the music one.
Share
Federica Tremolada
01:20
So my career started roughly like 20 years ago. Also thanks to the study that I did at
Bocconi University
with a B. A. In Arts management for Arts culture and communication, I was very motivated to get started into the entertainment business. That was my goal from the minute I started my studies at Bocconi
.Share
01:40
What I didn't know was that I was actually going to fall in love much more tech and digital than I ever expected - because I already knew my passion for music - but the digital transition was actually happening during those days.
Share
01:55
So I would say that if I need to select three key words that really determined my career from the very beginning, these are music, digital - so tech - and culture.
Share
Virginia Stagni
02:06
How is your normal work they look like? What are your daily task and what are your tips for our listeners of things that you are applying in your workday life of things that maybe you have studied or you're reading etcetera?
Share
Federica Tremolada
02:20
I overlooked 28 markets and I look after marketing the music part of the business, both like on the content side, but also on the business front, podcast as well. So
Spotify
is no longer just the music companies, we have become much, much bigger in terms of goal.Share
02:36
With all these different type of, let's say, functions to work on and with such a diversity of market, I would say that I never have a day that looks like the previous one or the next one. Each day is very unique in my life. And this is what actually keeps myself very, very excited about the job that I am doing.
Share
02:56
And also there are a lot of variety of different things. So it could go from one day really spending time with external partners or meeting journalist, talking about where we are as a company and then the next day we can have a deep dive re storming around how we're doing on the play listing side with the editorial teams.
Share
03:13
In terms of recommendations, learning new things every day, showing up every day knowing that there will be definitely some things that you didn't know because we are building culture as we speak, as part of a platform, and this doesn't mean only, you know, learning from generations of managers or people who have been in front of us, that is actually the obvious one.
Share
03:38
But most of the time I'm learning from the new generations from the younger people that I'm working with because the digital transition is happening continuously and the
Gen Z
and then the gen alpha that is coming after, are really showing us a completely different world that is like... unraveling in front of our eyes every day.Share
Virginia Stagni
03:57
What is fascinating is how much diversity you can see business side music side. I think it's quite interesting that either you need to embrace different cases, but at the same time there is quite a lot of cultural differences.
Share
04:10
The fact that you need to manage so many different regions with different tastes, different cultures. How do you go about that? How your team is supporting you in trying to manage diversity in a certain sense?
Share
Federica Tremolada
04:22
I think we are immersed in diversity ourselves. When you look after 28 markets, you have to sort of have an understanding of the culture around those markets, but also understand that you will never be able to be in each market entirely.
Share
04:39
The team is diverse itself, so meaning that we hire people not just from different cultures, but also with different types of skills. People are in some cases very much focused on the more mature markets, but also some other that are much more able to develop scaled programs in order to manage more markets at the same time.
Share
04:57
So if you think about all the eastern european markets that are in my region, some of them like
Hungary
for example, or Czech Republic
, having tremendous opportunity of growth, especially on the premium front, but in terms of total addressable market, they might be smaller.Share
05:14
And so how do we make sure that we support the local community but also the local partners in a way that is close to the local culture but is very representative of the
Spotify
brand as well? And so the team is doing an amazing job sort of building all these bridges in a context of Spotify
, where we put diversity at the forefront of everything we do. So we talk about diversity every day.Share
05:40
We understand that diversity is not just about talking about different languages or showing different nationalities, different representation in our team. It's also about enabling everyone to be authentic and sort of bring their own creativity, ease and feel safe in the environment they work at and that brings the best of themselves to what they do.
Share
Virginia Stagni
06:01
And that's absolutely part of the mission of bringing as well, this collaboration between the
Financial Times
with FT Talent and Bocconi is really trying to push diverse talent from diverse backgrounds to be inspired by companies and experts like yourself. It's quite interesting I think to see in terms of diversity, the business and tech industry has been changing quite a lot in the past few years and I know this is a topic that is really dear to you.Share
06:28
Can you talk about the efforts to diversify the music industry, as more women are joining your tech and business side of the industry?
Share
Federica Tremolada
06:38
So this is, as you said, like one of the topics which is very, very clear to me and one of the top of mind in what we're doing as I was mentioning before, we're very lucky at
Spotify
all these conversations are happening every day and we are immersed in a culture where diversity is at the forefront of what we do, but there's still a lot of work to do in the overall let's say, "context ecosystem" where we work on.Share
07:02
I'm not just talking about general behaviors. I'm talking about data. Gor example, at the charts, just 14% of the top charts are made of artists who are female artists. It was a shocking number. The first time we actually reviewed the data when we did the first analysis with
GFK
last year.Share
07:22
You know, despite we talked about this many times, it was in a way, still shocking to see this in the numbers when we look at podcast, things are not that different. So the numbers goes from 14% to 22%. The good part of this context is that if we look at this in terms of generations and in terms of different audiences of different creators, the
Gen Z
is really playing a key role in this.Share
07:48
The gap is getting to be bridged with the new generations. I see like a future where all the work that we're doing is sort of going and bringing us to a more positive context. But there is a lot more more to do.
Share
08:03
So we developed a program which is called Equal. It was program and thought to address the gender gap in music. And we actually also developed another program which is called Sound Up which is instead for for podcast for the remaining part of the audio industry. And our goal is ready to provide resources and tools in order to promote gender equality.
Share
08:26
So for example, for Equal, we are creating playlists that are called Equal with female artists included, and every month we are selecting one artist that is a cover or display list, but we're also developing marketing campaigns. Some of them were actually displayed in
the Times Square
in New York
.Share
08:44
For example, like I'm thinking of
Elisa
who was one of the key phase of our campaigns this year, but many, many other artists, you know, the goal is not just to run some showcases or campaigns to promote the content, but it's really to promote the messages and so we are also hosting them in different events and meetings so that we can discuss these things directly with them and then can contribute with their ideas and their creativity ease to what we're doing.Share
Virginia Stagni
09:12
It's so interesting to see what initiatives like this that have both the creative efforts and the marketing efforts pushed together can achieve in terms of like younger generations and younger people, let's imagine that some of our listeners do really want to be in the music industry. How do you suggest they go and stand out beyond a love for music?
Share
Federica Tremolada
09:34
I think first of all, like a passion for what you're doing for me, it has been the key driver of getting me here. So I never looked up at the position the role, but I wanted to become very much knowledgeable about what I was doing.
Share
09:51
Every day you need to know that you are behind and there is a kind of a formal and the world is going super fast in this direction. And so your passion, your drive that is sort of making you invest more time in understanding what the trends are and stay on top of what is happening.
Share
10:06
I mean in my case, obviously having my studies into business administration and entertainment, so the two things combined really gave me the opportunity to start off my career in the right direction. I think having conversations with people who are in the industry, that are around the industry. So being able to create a network.
Share
10:26
And this could mean not just senior executives, but it could mean really mean talking and being connected with the people who are creating from every side the industry. For example, it could be companies that are working as aggregators, the independent labels, independent artists.
Share
10:43
This has really helped me sort of understanding how I can better prioritize what I'm doing and at the same time keeping myself up to speed with what's happening in the industry. So openness has made a strong difference in my career, I believe.
Share
Virginia Stagni
10:59
Federica, one last question for you is about a bit more your personal view on this. How do you try to handle stress? I guess with your role as M. D., you have a lot of stressful situations, you need to control so many different ask as you were describing before, of your teams, you have a lot of people that you need to take care of as a leader, as a manager.
Share
11:22
How do you mitigate stress? What do you do and what are your suggestions for people that are entering in such a cybernetic work life similar to yours?
Share
Federica Tremolada
11:32
I think my answer to this question would probably be different, I mean in terms of agenda business trips, etcetera. So there are multiple tools that you can top it based on the level of stress you're in, which can help you at that specific time I used to before,
Covid
really lack physical activity. So I had to cut specific time in my agenda to do sports.Share
11:56
And so right now it can be sports, but it can always be a long walk that I do before starting at work. It just gives me the right level of energies in a way it makes me prepared to enter a conversation or a meeting where I'm fully focused and energize.
Share
12:12
I'm a strong fan of meditation, whatever it is the time that you cannot locate to that, investing time in sort of learning, which could be the different techniques and understanding which one works for you better is definitely one investment that will keep you, let's say, afloat if you need to manage a lot of different stressful situations.
Share
12:33
And then spending time doing things that are your passions and that are very close at what make you feel entertained and detached from work, even if this is just like 20 or 30 minutes can really work.
Share
12:47
I play tennis and that works very well for me. But there are multiple things go from playing an instrument to reading, doing different types of things.
Share
12:57
So what I try to do in my calendar, I try to make sure that every day there is some time allocated to one of these things when I feel that you know, I'm running out of breath and what I have in my calendar is not enough. Then I ask for more time.
Share
13:13
So I start dedicating more time to myself so that I can rebalance the situation and I'm encouraging my team and the people around myself so my family as well to do that. When I see that happening, there is a lot of education I think in terms of mental well being that needs to be done and a lot of taboo that needs to be managed in our society to all be able to have a healthy approach to this.
Share
Virginia Stagni
13:37
Definitely at least after
Covid
we have seen a radical change and the dramatic changes, I think it's really important what you are mentioning. So thank you so much Federica and as you know, a big part of this show that makes it a bit different is that we are bringing in the challengers and the younger people that are part of this program.Share
13:57
We are asking questions tragically to our expert. So Federica, we have two questions for you, one is from Vera and one from Samson. So Vera, over to you.
Share
Vera
14:07
Hello, my name is Vera and I was honored to participate in the detail and challenge in 2020.
Share
14:13
Originally I'm from Russia but currently I'm living in
Milan
and during my second year of Masters in financial management at Bocconi
.Share
14:21
My question to Federico Tremolada is the following. You did a talk session in Torino, you shared a fascinating insight into the interconnection between music and math. Could deeply deliberate on how incorporating data driven algorithms, industry main platforms can provoke an emotional response from the users.
Share
14:41
While listening to
Spotify
, have you ever felt that the personalized suggestions has surpassed your expectations? Thanks a lot. And looking forward to hearing from you.Share
Federica Tremolada
14:53
Thank you so much for your question. Thanks also for the connection to the talk about music and math, which was one of the big passion that I have in my life.
Share
15:05
I mean some of the things we discussed today are part of your answer. So the algorithm is like very complicated topic, more for engineers than from a business person like myself. But what I can tell you is that we actually look really seriously for each type of playlist.
Share
15:22
What is the engagement that users are having breach songs in the playlist, we are programming these playlists on one side like a clear eye on what's happening in the cultural landscape, but on the other side on what are using expecting from these songs and from us.
Share
15:38
The editorial activity as a result has a lot to do with mathematics and doing mathematical analysis in order to program playlists based on all the numbers that we are collecting every day.
Share
15:48
The connection with emotions comes with the fact that I believe music is an individual experience, but also it's an experience that you like sharing with your friends and everyone you love. And so one of the key elements that we're seeing is for example how many people are tapping into listening to that song more times than expected. Or for example it could be songs that you love sharing with your friends.
Share
16:16
We have recently introduced function which is called Blend and you find it basically if you search the Made For You experience in the app which is creating thanks to the algorithm, a playlist that you and your friend can share based on your tastes. So you can blend your music with a friend of yours, and hopefully this is creating a better emotional experience and connection and bond with the person you share this with.
Share
Virginia Stagni
16:43
Thank you very much Federica. And the second question is from Samson.
Share
Samson
16:49
Hello, my name is Samson. I was a participant of the F. D. Talent challenge in 2021. I am from
Ghana
and currently living in Ghana
located in West Africa
. Currently I'm wrapping up with my final works for my undergraduate studies in BS in Petroleum Engineering, and University Of Science And Technology also located in West Africa
.Share
17:12
My question is in the next decade. How do you think the format and production values of podcasts will evolve? Thanks and looking forward to hearing from you.
Share
Federica Tremolada
17:23
Thank you Samson. Thanks so much for for your question, the industry of podcasts is basically revolutionizing as we speak some more and more formats and different genre have come into place in the last four years basically since podcasts have been more on the rise than they sort of identify themselves as a new language in the media, the type of content, the type of format are under a revolution as well.
Share
17:49
So what we saw during
Covid
for example, is that a lot of people were turning to audio because audio is giving you especially podcast a very intimate experience. You are able to sort of learn new things or get yourself, for example, a meditation session rather than a language classes.Share
18:07
The trends are different in each market. It's gonna be interesting for example, to see in the african market, what kind of formats will be available in the future. In
Italy
for example, news and current updates are those that are most popular. in Spain there is another market that I'm following comedy is one of the key genre.Share
18:26
What I think will happen more and more in the future is that this is going to become like a business which has a monetization component. It is much more established, for example, in the United States, but it hasn't been established in all markets in Europe yet, especially in the emerging markets.
Share
18:42
I expect a more fragmented number of creators to turn into podcasts similarly to what happened to video. So there are now platforms like Anchor, one of the platforms that is owned by
Spotify
where every user can update a podcast and it's getting easier and easier for people to become podcasters.Share
19:00
So where is this leading to so it's leading to more creativity media tier creators that will be able to sort of share their creativity with the rest of the world. Exactly like what happened for example for
YouTube
in the video industry.Share
19:14
On the other side, the technology of the monetization is becoming much more advanced for the brands. So we launched in some of our markets what we call "stream ad insertion", which is the technology which is enabling brands to learn how to better target their ads in podcasting. So without getting into technical details, essentially this will be able to abstract more economic and monetization value out of podcast.
Share
19:41
So the combinations of enabling more creators and enabling them to also make money out of their content will bring us, I would say different types of formats in terms of length. So we will continue to see the traditional audio formats that are translation sort of to what is happening in traditional business, but also new formats, for example, shorter type of formats, that are more appealing to the audiences.
Share
20:06
So thanks so much for your question and looking forward to sharing more results as we are also learning them.
Share
Virginia Stagni
20:13
Thank you very much Federica. We really walked from leadership to the music industry personalization is all the different aspects that make
Spotify
and so exciting. So thank you very much for sharing and also being so open as you were mentioning about the way you're seeing the world, the way you're seeing, building something from scratch as you're doing every single day.Share
Federica Tremolada
20:33
Thank you so much. It was an honor for me to be here today. So thank you so much, it was a great pleasure.
Share
Virginia Stagni
20:40
Thank you, thank you Federica and of course keep listening, keep pushing all your feedback and your comments of each episode. We cannot wait to read more when you think about this episode and if you have any other questions for us and the team, please shoot it and you know how to do it from the social media to here on the platform. Thank you very much.
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21:00
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21:13
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21:47
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Federica Tremolada
Virginia Stagni
Vera
Samson