Spotify unveils purpose-built Listening Lounge to host events for artists’ top fans | Digital

Spotify has unveiled the Spotify Listening Lounge, a purpose-built acoustic space at the company’s London headquarters to showcase its lossless audio offering.

In a statement, the streaming giant said it was “designed to honour music at its most immersive and to create a new kind of cultural experience around intentional listening”. 

The space has been designed in collaboration with Cake Architecture around a bespoke sound system by Friendly Pressure, the London based loudspeaker design studio founded by Shivas Howard-Brown.

With the unveiling of the Listening Lounge, Spotify is planning year-round programming that will reward fans by opening up access to artists in an intimate environment. Access will be granted to artists’ top fans and Spotify Premium users.

“The Listening Lounge is where technology, craftsmanship, and culture align,” said Billie Baier, co-head of marketing, Spotify UK & Ireland. “By bringing lossless audio into a purpose-built environment, we’re demonstrating the full potential of streaming and fostering a deeper connection between fans and the music they love.” 

By bringing lossless audio into a purpose-built environment, we’re demonstrating the full potential of streaming and fostering a deeper connection between fans and the music they love

Billie Baier

Each wall in the main Listening Lounge space has been acoustically tuned through a calibrated surface pattern. Acoustic design was developed in collaboration with New York-based acoustician Ethan Bordeau, using Kvadrat’s acoustic systems.

The audio system features loudspeakers with ALNICO magnet drivers – components once reserved for systems like those used to master iconic albums at Abbey Road throughout the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s. 

“By reintroducing this level of craftsmanship, Spotify is allowing listeners to experience music precisely as it was originally heard in the studio,” said the statement.

“Growing up in and around recording studios exposed me to a whole heritage of craft,” said Shivas Howard-Brown, Friendly Pressure. “Sound systems built in sheds, speakers designed for Carnival stacks – these have always had the same ambition as anything you’d find in a high-end listening room. This new space is my attempt to make that argument.”

“Collaborating with Spotify and Friendly Pressure allowed us to treat the room itself as an instrument. Every surface pattern and material choice was a functional decision to eliminate interference, ensuring that the craftsmanship of the speakers is matched by the precision of the architecture surrounding them,” said Hugh Scott Moncrieff, Cake. 

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