Pod#187 - Rutaba Yaqub from Spotify Pakistan! - Playlists, trends, genres & more!

Back after an extended hiatus, we return with a very special guest! This week we're joined by Rutaba Yaqub from Spotify Pakistan! She's on the show because we've been heavily invested in talking about music in Pakistan and Spotify Pakistan in just 2 years has become an undeniable platform that all professional musicians need to be on. We speak about her role curating music for playlists, Spotify's global and local initiatives, and some great bits about the lifecycle of songs and artists from new and indie to hits and stars. Jump in! Things discussed in this episode: 00:00 Intro and how Rutaba started working with Spotify 03:59 South Asian music has familiar themes and metaphors across borders 05:30 Summarising how her job has changed over 2 years - more music, more artists, more playlists 11:11 Talking about 3 of the biggest playlists in the region and how they work 15:32 Spotify’s EQUAL initiative - finding and showcasing female artists globally & its impact 22:06 From “indie” to mainstream - how independent artists have massive hits on Spotify 32:43 Creating experiences for audiences - how every song needs to be placed in the right spot to get the listenership it deserves 36:55 How Desi music crosses all borders in South Asia for both local and diaspora listeners 47:05 Spotify is doing live events?? 49:43 Outro LINKS: Fresh Finds PK: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DXd0Rasy4eR1v Pakistani Indie Rising: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX30DGof92rQX Nayi Bars: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DWYwEKCAVGtST EQUAL Pakistan: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DXdpfEkksq5CO Radar Pakistan: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DWU6NlIeT95t9 desi lofi: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DWWlfVnonJ8S6 Support the podcast by becoming a monthly patron on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/tprpod) or send a one-off token on Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/tprpod)! Find all our previous episodes on SoundCloud, Spotify & Apple Podcasts and follow us all on Twitter! Links to everything below! SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/tprpod Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6PvTahp... Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tprpod/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TPRPod Ali: https://twitter.com/themaholupper Rizwan: https://twitter.com/RizwanTakkhar Sarkhail: https://twitter.com/Sarkhail7Khan