Music streaming service Spotify has held its first songwriting camp in the Republic of Ireland this week with artists including Choice Prize nominees Jafaris and Sorcha Richardson among those taking part. The three-day event saw musicians, songwriters and producers descending on Camden Recording Studios to work on new tunes.
The idea for the camp coincides with the release of the recently introduced A Breath of Fresh Eire playlist on Spotify, which features new tracks from Irish artists. It also comes in the wake of the Butter Sessions in New York last year, which saw a group of jazz, alternative soul and hip hop artists and producers gathering together for a three-day jam. A similar camp in London has also been held recently.
"Our goal is to make music accessible to everyone by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by it. The songwriting camp is just one of the ways we're shining a light on the latest Irish talent," said Spotify's UK and Ireland managing director Tom Connaughton.
He said the Irish music scene is buzzing right now.
“What’s really exciting is that it’s not just one genre that’s flourishing – there’s such a breadth of talent from pop to indie, electronic/dance to hip hop and more.”
“We see huge listening across Ireland but what’s massively exciting for us is that there’s so much more room to grow here,” Mr Connaughton added.
He said the company will be back in Dublin shortly with plans to host a Spotify for Podcasters masterclass.
Established in Sweden in 2008, Spotify offers more than 50 million track and 700,000 podcast titles to stream. It has 271 million users, including 124 million subscribers, across 79 markets.
