Canadian artists and SOCAN members like Dear Rouge and Coeur de Pirate have an unexpected and relatively new champion when it comes to promoting their wares, both at home and internationally: Spotify Canada.

The global streaming service, which opened shop in this country in November 2014 after years of anticipation, has been doing its utmost to help Canadian recording artists – almost all of whom are SOCAN members – establish themselves, both internationally and domestically, through carefully curated playlists and spotlight programs.

They have the podium to do it: boasting 100 million monthly active users around the world (Spotify doesn’t provide territorial breakdowns), the platform has become a prime source of influence since its 2008 launch in Sweden.

And influence is one of the chief reasons industry veteran Nathan Wiszniak signed up as Spotify Canada’s label relations manager 18 months ago.

“When you look at a global platform like Spotify, it’s got the potential of building audiences for the growth of Canadian artists globally,” says Wiszniak, whose career résumé includes multi-year sales stints at Fusion III, Fontana North and Sony Music Canada. “It was a really great opportunity.”

Especially since the popularity of streaming services here is on the rise, with companies like Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, Google Music Play, Galaxie/Stingray Music, Groove, and Slacker – all licensed by SOCAN.  Streaming music accounted for $15.5 million of SOCAN’s $308 million revenue in 2015, a 24.4 percent increase over 2014.

For successful streaming artists like BadBadNotGood, Ria Mae, SonReal and Jazz Cartier, Spotify Canada is opening doors through its full domestic talent spotlights.

For example, take 2016 JUNO Award-winning, and 2015 SOCAN Songwriting Prize-winning husband-and-wife duo Drew and Danielle McTaggart, better known as Dear Rouge.

“Dear Rouge was a spotlight artist in 2015 for us,” says Wiszniak. “We worked very closely with the band, the label and management at the beginning, so we could identify a long-term plan and map it out. Dear Rouge did a great job of using artist playlists as a content driver to fill the gap between single releases.

“From there, we were able to work on our international teams to include it on some playlists outside of Canada, which resulted in the U.S. becoming Dear Rouge’s biggest territory, representing almost 40 percent of the band’s market share.”

Dear Rouge also made great strides across the Atlantic through Spotify Canada’s efforts. “You see that their number three territory is Spain, so we know now that we’ve been able to globalize our platform and increase audiences, opening opportunities for them to tour these markets.”

“When we heard Spotify was coming to Canada, we told them that we wanted to become actively involved, make playlists and embrace the service,” says Drew McTaggart of Dear Rouge. “So they helped us get on all these playlists and got us tons of exposure… I think we now have 30 million hits on ‘Black to Gold,’ which is amazing. We were released around the world through Spotify, even though we only did our record in Canada… There was a review in U.S.A. Today on our song, and they said it was going to be a great summer anthem. That was absolutely amazing because they heard us on Spotify… And our first tour in the U.S., we didn’t release anything, but there were always people at the shows from hearing us on Spotify… U.S. labels are [now] interested in signing us because of the numbers.”

Québec artists have also benefited from “the unique Francophone category that lives in our browse section,” as well as collaborations between Spotify Canada and some the main organization’s satellite offices.

“Coeur de Pirate worked with our French team and on some localized programming and playlists,” Wiszniak notes. “As a result, we were able to transition their highest market of Canada to France.

“When you look at a very Québec-centric band like Dead Obies, one of our editors who curates an international hip-hop playlist was able to add them into the playlist and broaden their audience. Canada remains the top Dead Obies market, but the U.S. is their second biggest market; interesting for a Québec band that now has over 1.8 million streams in the last year alone.

“Globalization and working with teams in other markets is how we’ve been able to do this.”

Spotify Canada’s tools of promotion also apply to indie artists like the reclusive Allan Rayman, a Toronto-based singer and songwriter who’s not even signed to a label (though he’s managed by Joel Carriere, the head of both Bedlam Music Management and Dine Alone Records), but whose music, particularly his album Hotel Allan, is gaining traction. Pop singer Saya also topped the global viral chart with “Wet Dreams” largely due to fan support.

How does it work?

Once Spotify Canada receives music from its variety of sources, including managers and artists, Wiszniak works closely with a playlist editor “in identifying priorities.”

“A lot of it is data-related – we use data as a definite driver/indicator as far as things are either happening, and an indication of where that initial audience is,” he explains. “When we have new releases or see things are reacting on the platform, whether that’s through our viral charts or on Discover Weekly, where people discover artists, we work together on prioritizing those releases.”

One of the more effective promotional tools is their spotlight program, first launched in December 2015.

“We identify artists that are poised as breaking for Canada and globally in the coming year,” Wiszniak explains. “We partner with those artists on helping them break into other territories. Our viral charts are a really great indicator of music that fans may be reacting to, especially artists that we don’t know.”

Wiszniak’s other label relations duties include educating different facets of the music industry on what Spotify can do for them.

“Essentially I’m the point of contact for the music industry here,” he says. “Labels, independent distributors and aggregators from the Orchard to Kobalt; independent platform labels in the U.S.; those that need to seek distribution, and even direct labels like Paper Bag: I deal with them weekly or bi-weekly to make sure that we’re ahead of their releases.”

Wiszniak also informs organizations like the Canadian Music Publishers Association (CMPA) and SOCAN about “our best practices” and maintains direct relationships with artists and managers. Overall, Wiszniak says Spotify Canada’s mandate, with “a storefront that’s conducive to Canadian artists,” is a simple one.

“We really want to build the story in Canada, but the ultimate goal is to help globalize and cover the fan base of these Canadian artists.”