These three Spotify editors are becoming music’s most influential players
Every week, Hannah Brewer, Jazmine Huggins and Amelia Jenner spend almost half of their time at work – about 20 hours – listening to as much new music released in Australia and New Zealand as they can.
As the three music editors at Spotify, the trio are some of the most powerful people in the local industry, deciding whether artists make it into key playlists that materially influence how $250 million in royalties is allocated.
Spotify says it is the “single largest contributor to the Australian music industry”, which is worth more than $609 million a year.
Brewer oversees pop and pop culture, Huggins looks after hip hop, R&B and dance, and Jenner is in charge of the indie scene.
Three of the most powerful people in Australian music are (left to right) Amelia Jenner, Hannah Brewer and Jazmine Huggins. They listen to 20 hours of music a week and curate Spotify’s local playlists. Louie Douvis
“We do have a powerful, critical role, but we look at it from a place of privilege,” Brewer says.
Most of Spotify’s music recommendations are generated by an algorithm based on a user’s taste and listening history. But the three editors use a combination of gut feel, listener data and direct pitches from artists and labels on an internal system to manage 160 major playlists between them.
Each playlist – Hot Hits Australia, New Music Friday AU&NZ, and Front Left, for example – has between 50 and 100 songs, and they’re updated weekly. Between them, the three editors curate 15 of the 20 most popular playlists in Australia. Hot Hits Australia has more than 1.3 million subscribers.
“When an artist is breaking, there are so many things that need to be aligned in terms of the shows they’re playing, if they’re selling out venues, are they on
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