Spotify announces partnership with Ava DuVernay's ARRAY to produce series of scripted and unscripted podcasts

LOS ANGELES, Calif., (January 21, 2020) – Spotify (NYSE: SPOT) announced today a multi-year partnership with award-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay (Selma, 13th, Queen Sugar). Together, Spotify and DuVernay will produce exclusive scripted and unscripted original audio programming through ARRAY, DuVernay’s multi-platform arts and social impact collective dedicated to narrative change.

Under the exclusive partnership, ARRAY will join Spotify and their global reach – which recently surpassed 144 million Premium subscribers and more than 320 million monthly active users around the world – to amplify a variety of voices and perspectives through podcasting.

“Recognizing the undeniable power of voice and sound, I’m thrilled to extend ARRAY’s storytelling into the realm of podcasts,” shared DuVernay. “The opportunity to work with Lydia Polgreen and her passionate team drew us to Spotify as a home for our audio narratives and we couldn’t be more excited to begin this new creative journey.”

“Spotify’s partnership with ARRAY continues our commitment to bringing the world’s most powerful and creative voices into podcasting,” said Spotify Chief Content and Advertising Business Officer, Dawn Ostroff. “We look forward to Spotify listeners hearing from the exceptional creators that ARRAY will be bringing to our global platform.”

ARRAY will partner with Spotify’s Gimlet studio on a number of scripted and unscripted narrative podcasts overseen by ARRAY Filmworks President Sarah Bremner.

“Ava DuVernay and her team at ARRAY are at the forefront of telling powerful stories about the most pressing issues of our time,” said Lydia Polgreen, Managing Director of Gimlet. “We’re so excited to bring their passion for lifting up forgotten and neglected voices to life in audio.”

All podcasts on Spotify, including those exclusive titles stemming from this partnership, are available for free.

About Spotify

Spotify transformed music listening forever when we launched in 2008. Our mission is to unlock the potential of human creativity 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 these creators. Everything we do is driven by our love for music and podcasts.

Discover, manage, and share over 60 million tracks, including more than 1.9 million podcast titles, for free, or upgrade to Spotify Premium to access exclusive features for music including improved sound quality and an on-demand, offline, and ad-free listening experience.

Today, we are the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service with a community of more than 320 million users, including 144 million Spotify Premium subscribers, across 92 markets.

About ARRAY

Founded in 2011 by filmmaker Ava DuVernay, ARRAY is a multi-platform arts and social impact collective dedicated to narrative change. The organization catalyzes its work through a quartet of mission-driven entities: the film distribution arm ARRAY Releasing, the content company ARRAY Filmworks, the programming and production hub ARRAY Creative Campus and the non-profit group ARRAY Alliance. www.arraynow.com