Spotify says Sean Parker launched pop star Lorde's career by putting her on his 'Hipster International' playlist

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February 28, 2018 9:57 PM

Spotify filed to go public on Wednesday and used the opportunity to take credit for launching pop star Lorde's career. And Sean Parker was involved.

Spotify filed to go public Wednesday in a "Direct IPO."
In its SEC paperwork, Spotify used the example of Lorde to show how it could launch a music artist's career.
Spotify says Sean Parker helped catapult Lorde to stardom by putting her on his playlist, "Hipster International."

Spotify filed to go public on Wednesday (in a weird way), and the music-streaming giant used the opportunity to take credit for launching pop star Lorde's career.

In its SEC paperwork, Spotify emphasized that it could help both emerging and established artists by allowing their music to be discovered.

"One prominent example of how Spotify enabled an aspiring artist to reach a global audience is international pop star Lorde," Spotify wrote.

Here's how Spotify describes Lorde's rise to stardom:

"Lorde started out as a singer-songwriter from New Zealand looking to break out with her new single, 'Royals,' when Sean Parker added her single to his popular playlist Hipster International. After approximately one month, Lorde had jumped past prominent artists such as Katy Perry, Drake, and Lady Gaga to land at the top of Spotify’s Viral Chart, and after eight months, she had reached over 100 million streams on Spotify and was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100."

According to Spotify, we need to add another accolade to tech disrupter Sean Parker's already long resume. After founding Napster when he was a teen, Parker went on to become the president of Facebook (before stepping down), and an early investor and board member at Spotify. Then in 2013, using his ironically named Spotify playlist, "Hipster International" (which currently has 748,778 followers), he shot Lorde to the heights of Katy Perry, Drake, and Lady Gaga.

"I feel like in many ways she's the antidote to disposable pop music," Parker told Forbes at the time. "I feel like it was accessible to the same people who listen to Katy Perry, for instance, but there's obviously something more authentic and personal to Lorde's music. I got the sense she represents the return to a singer-songwriter approach to songwriting, and yet she has a knack for writing incredibly infectious melodies."

While the extent to which Spotify's existence allowed Lorde to become a star can be debated, it is clear that a placement on Spotify's prominent playlists (like RapCaviar) can help boost an artist's profile.

It is also evident that Spotify wants to position itself to investors as a service that is good for artists, and can help jumpstart their careers.

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