The Power 50: #6 - Alicia Sbrugnera

Prior to joining Spotify, Alicia Sbrugnera had worked as a Programmer with Mood Media, Viacom (MTV) and Foxtel Music Channels, as well as being Radio & Chart Manager at The Music Network. Sbrugnera started with Spotify as Senior Editor in 2015, working her way up the ranks to Head Of Shows & Editorial ANZ in 2018 and now as Head Of Music. 

According to figures from ARIA, streaming revenue now makes up 80% of the Australian music market - seeing an impressive 18% year on year growth in 2019. Among the leaders is Spotify, with the Australian team presenting another formidable year. 

The Australian curation team - led by Sbrugnera and made up of Artist & Label Marketing Managers Jonathan Harrison and Alyce Wearne, Senior Editor Peter Stevens, Editors Andrea Gavrilovic and Hannah Brewer, and Music Team Coordinator Esther Shewry - delivered a number of key campaigns throughout 2019, working across both artists and the Spotify brand. Included in the brand’s largest ever local artist marketing investment were campaigns for Sampa The Great, Cub Sport, Hayden James, Dean Lewis and Hilltop Hoods. 

Hip hop was a key focus throughout the year too, with dedicated series Starting Point launched to explore four tracks from emerging artists and give fans insight into the song and artist. 

Spotify branded events for the year included Front Left Live in Melbourne which saw Tove Lo in an exclusive Australian performance to a sold out show at The Forum alongside Tones & I, BENEE, Electric Fields and more, as well as A1 Live at Sydney’s Metro Theatre, with performances from Manu Crooks, Triple One, Kwame, JessB, Hooligan Hefs and Sophiegrophy. Spotify also partnered with BIGSOUND to present First Nations House during the September event.  

Recognising that today’s music fans aren’t necessarily driven by genre anymore, Spotify introduced new genre-less playlists crush and softly to help drive these audiences and aid new music discovery. The year also saw an increase in female artists on Spotify owned and operated playlists, with increased resources to assess and counter algorithmic bias in user behaviour when using the platform, as well as an increase in marketing budgets for female artists. 

There’s no denying the role Spotify played in establishing Tones & I (real name Toni Watson) as one of Australia’s biggest exports. What’s the result been? The Melbourne via Byron Bay artist has now secured herself the title of the platform’s most streamed song ever by a solo female artist with Dance Monkey reaching over 1.5 billion streams at the time of writing.

"Our ongoing commitment as a music team at Spotify is to support local artists, tell their stories and connect audiences around the world to the diversity of sounds coming out of Australia and New Zealand. We are proud of what we achieved with A1 Live in Sydney where we put a spotlight on local hip hop and our First Nations House initiative which supported our dedication to increasing the representation of First Nations creators, both on and off-platform." - the Spotify Music Team