SPOTIFY SPICES UP HOT COUNTRY

Spotify has polished the spurs and shined the boots of its flagship country playlist, Hot Country, adding original video content, music videos and a special performance from Justin Timberlake and Chris Stapleton.

As the streaming service has done with Rap Caviar and ¡Viva Latino!, Hot Country has been enhanced to combine music and video into a single view, providing users access to interviews and music videos in addition to audio tracks. The playlist will also refresh throughout the week.

Each Friday will feature new and original video interviews, starting today with Keith Urban, who shows off his guitar collection and home studio, and talks about his new Hit Red/Capitol Nashville release Graffiti U. Upcoming artist interviews include Kacey Musgraves and Kenny Chesney.

“Country artists have been craving the attention of the streaming services to help bring the country audience into streaming and craving a deeper ability to connect with and expand their audiences,” says Brittany Schaffer, Head of Artist and Label Marketing at Spotify’s Nashville office. “The enhancement of the Hot Country playlist is Spotify’s first significant step in helping artists do just that.”

Universal Music Group, Nashville President Cindy Mabe said, “Spotify has truly put their money where their mouth is with their investment in Nashville while leaning into our artists’ stories in order to grow the audience.”

Warner Music Nashville Chairman & CEO John Esposito noted the relaunch is “an indicator that fans of our genre are consuming music in more new ways than ever before, through video and on their phones.”

Hot Country, which has 4.63m followers, is also launching in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Spain.

Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images for Spotify