John Marks Departure from Spotify Could Be Significant for Country
There are only a handful of truly powerful positions in country music where one individual can make or break a career, or influence the direction of the genre at large. There are the heads of the respective major label groups in Nashville. There are the top programmers at radio corporations iHeartRadio and Cumulus Media. There’s the CEO of the CMA, and the General Manager of the Grand Ole Opry. There’s the editor-at-large at Saving Country Music (okay, not really). And there is the Global Director of Country Music at Spotify—the leader in the streaming media and playlist space.
It’s not just the subscription base Spotify boasts, but their powerful playlists that can put an artist or song in front of thousands, sometimes millions of people with a simple selection. As corporate country radio continues to become more niche and country listeners adopt streaming en masse, it’s made Country Music Global Director John Marks at Spotify a significant power player in the genre.
But now he’s leaving the position. Announced earlier this week, Thursday (3-31) was the last day for John Marks. Previously the goatee’d one was the Head of Country Music Programming at SiriusXM starting in 2010, and was instrumental in turning their channel The Highway into a country music juggernaut, and helping to launch the careers of numerous Bro-Country acts such as Florida Georgia Line and Chase Rice. The channel is also given credit for helping to foster the Bro-Country movement at large.
Moving to Spotify in 2015, John Marks made his mark by launching the streaming giant’s massive country playlists, including Hot Country which now boasts over 6 million followers. But similar to mainstream country radio and SiriusXM’s The Highway, many of Spotify’s major country playlists present a mainstream-centric perspective on the music, even as independent artists continue to increase their market share and influence.
Consider him “mainstream” John Marks. A generally well-liked and well thought-of guy throughout Nashville, it just sometimes felt like he failed to see the bigger picture. Even many of the undiscovered names that would end up on the biggest playlists had a mainstream vibe to them, while even the top independent artists like Cody Jinks, Tyler Childers, and Sturgill Simpson were relegated to other playlists, like Spotify’s poorly-named “Indigo” playlist. Spotify’s major country playlists also exhibited the same lack of representation for women we’ve seen from mainstream country radio.
Over time, Spotify’s playlists and recommendations in country have gotten slightly better, even though representing the wider panorama of country music has often been been done through launching new playlists as opposed to giving more, and better representation to independent artists on the top ones.
Rachel Whitney, who joined the Spotify team in Nashville in February 2020 as the “Head of Editorial Nashville” will remain at the company, and is now the primary Spotify employee in Nashville who will handle all country, Christian, gospel, folk, Americana and roots music. Previously working for Pandora and then YouTube, Whitney’s reputation is a bit more centered around looking beyond mainstream blueprint, while not ignoring the big names either.
While Rachel Whitney was at Pandora, Cody Jinks and other independent artists with swelling fan bases got their opportunities to be heard. If you showed promise and resonance with listeners, you were given a greater chance. The listeners had a large sway in what was put front and center, not just major label reps.
Perhaps we’ll see a slight, or even a seismic shift in the way Spotify handles its curation moving forward after the departure of John Marks. Perhaps we won’t. But it’s most certainly a development worth noting. Because as streaming continues to become the most dominant influence in all of music, Spotify will have a major impact on what direction country music heads.
April 2, 2021 @ 8:57 am
Very interesting, fingers crossed that this means we saw a wider representation on the country streaming chart, from Cody Jinks, to Rhiannon Giddens, to Breland, and even the mainstream guys. It’s all different parts of the country music umbrella, and they should all be represented (even if I like parts of it better then others)
April 2, 2021 @ 10:28 am
If it’s not mainstream, it’s “Americana” and the Bros are kept safe from it. I don’t see that changing, even on Spotify. But who knows.
April 2, 2021 @ 10:36 am
Yes, the sort of soft insults and relegating of music ends up becoming institutionalized in the brains of listeners through some of these playlists. I get that big mainstream names that sell out arenas are going to be the focus of big playlists. But just give folks who’ve proven resonance and commercial viability—and who are actually country—a seat at the table as well. Foster the discovery experience by giving folks at least a taste.
April 2, 2021 @ 10:52 am
My intro to country music and bluegrass was largely from pandora stations, and I remember being surprised what I *didn’t* hear when I finally started listening to terrestrial radio. Not sure if Ms Whitney was a part of that or not, would have been over 10 years ago now.
Fingers crossed this is a change for the better. Spotify is the now and the near future, while radio is circling the drain.
April 2, 2021 @ 1:05 pm
I like Spotify but I guess I am a relic because I grew up at the crossover period between vinyl/cassettes/CDs so full albums are really what I listen to. The playlists are great though for discovering new music, but lately I have been researching artists and using Amazon music to find albums. They have good suggestions for similar artists though. I discovered David Ball that way. Anyway hope his replacement does a great job!
April 2, 2021 @ 4:58 pm
I remember being at a keynote/round table type event in Nashville in early 2014 when John Marks was still at Sirrius /XM. This was right around the time with the lack of female representation in mainstream country radio was really starting to be noticed, and Marks was squirming after audience members asked question after question about why his stations weren’t playing more women (not like inventory at that time was shallow). His consistent answer for why his XM stations didn’t play more female artists was the standard “our listener polling, our listener polling, that’s why! Our listeners don’t want it!”
Give me a break, man, don’t insult my intelligence. It was obvious to me then (just as it is now) that the average country radio listener will follow whatever the major labels and mainstream power brokers tell them they should like and love. Take some ownership and have some boldness to steer the ship since you’re the one in power.
Here’s to hoping this change in editorial leadership is the sea change that we fans of real, authentic (and diverse) country music have been dreaming about. Not holding my breath though…
April 2, 2021 @ 5:39 pm
Or in the immortal words of Jax Teller, “Don’t pass the buck, man. That’s weak.”
April 3, 2021 @ 5:38 am
One of the few times I am in complete agreement with trigger. It’s a chance for artists who sing real country music, to get a little big time exposure. I think the market for real country is much bigger than many think. Let’s hope it changes with this move.
April 3, 2021 @ 10:45 am
When I work with people who are listing to pandora playlists or what have you, it sounds more generic/homogenized/boring than our local classic country FM station.
April 5, 2021 @ 11:41 am
I generally don’t listen to Spotify’s genre generated playlist. Same reason I don’t like regular radio anymore. My taste just doesn’t seem to match mainstream anything. The Spotify recommended for me playlist however are usually pretty good. I have found some really good new artist that way, 2nd only to reading Saving Country Music.