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Ryan Redington. Photo: John Amis/AP Content Services for Amazon
Last week, Amazon Music held a reception at the National Museum of African American Music to launch Amazon’s Delivering the Future event, which highlighted the company’s investments in Tennessee and its focus on innovation.
During the event, Amazon Music General Manager Ryan Redington discussed key priorities for the music division, emphasizing Amazon’s dedication to customer-centric innovation. He also explained how the company leverages its global platform to support artists.
Redington introduced Maestro, Amazon Music’s new AI-powered playlist generator, currently in beta for select U.S. users. Maestro enables users to create playlists by inputting different elements like moods, emojis, activities or sounds. For example, users can request something like “Myspace era hip-hop,” and Maestro will curate a corresponding playlist.
Ryan Redington. Photo: John Amis/AP Content Services for Amazon
“From a prompt, we use a large language model to help interpret what the customer’s actually asking. Then we use the model to help us figure out what type of response we need to give, and then we have to marry that with our music catalog to actually create a sequence of songs,” Regington shared with MusicRow after the event. “It’s incredibly complicated on the back end, but for the customer, it happens in seconds and feels like magic.”
Additionally, Redington touched on the growth of Amazon Music’s live streaming, particularly through programs like Amazon Music Live. He highlighted their partnership with Thursday Night Football, where artists perform right after the game, allowing them to reach large audiences.
“Live streaming specifically during COVID was really born out of a necessity,” Redington says. “We got great customer feedback and artists really liked it, and we realized it could actually be a [bigger part of our] business. We have Prime Video all around the world and Amazon Music products in 50 countries, so [we started developing it.]
“We live stream festivals all over the world now. With Amazon Music Live, we also do City Sessions where we tap artists’ visions, build sets to match that vision and deliver an experience that is a really high bar for customers and artists.”
The third season of Amazon Music Live after Thursday Night Football begins tomorrow (Oct. 17) with a performance by Jelly Roll in Los Angeles, streamed on Prime Video and Twitch. Following that, performances from Big Sean (Oct. 24), Halsey (Oct. 31) and J Balvin (Nov. 7) are lined up.
Breland and Ryan Redington. Photo: John Amis/AP Content Services for Amazon
“Live streaming gives artists the ability to market themselves through Thursday Night Football, one of the most watched shows in any week during the football season,” Redington shares. “We have artists on there doing interviews, talking about their new music, and then rolling the audience base into a live stream. It’s a great way to drive that intersection of sports and music.”
As part of Country Music Month, Amazon puts together an expansive slate of content tied to another of the streaming service’s flagship playlist, Bonfire. Throughout the month, Amazon Music has released new livestreams, Amazon Music Originals and videos from the artists who define the playlist. Additionally, Amazon Breakthrough Artist Nate Smith performed for a group of fans in Los Angeles as part of City Sessions for Country Music Month, and the platform released a video of Kacey Musgraves’ recent Climate Pledge Arena concert.
On Oct. 25, Amazon Music will release the latest episode of Songline—the new docu-performance series that provides fans an intimate look into an artist’s songwriting process and the stories behind the music—with Leon Bridges as part of Country Music Month.
“We like to think every month is Country Music Month, but it is a really great way to talk about country music and how important it is to our customers,” shares Emily Cohen Belote, Lead Music Curator at Amazon Music.
“We really rally around that month to show the best in class that Amazon Music has to offer,” adds Michelle Tigard Kammerer, Head of Country Music for Amazon Music. “We take what’s happening in culture and cross-collaborate that with what’s happening in country music on our service, and really highlight that throughout the month.”
Finally, Redington discussed Amazon Music’s Breakthrough program, designed to provide emerging artists with significant support through custom content, global marketing campaigns, and enhanced visibility across Amazon Music playlists and platforms.
To close the event, he invited 2022 Breakthrough Artist Breland to perform. Breland blew the roof off the building with some of his biggest hits, like “Praise The Lord” and “Cross Country,” and a selection of new material from his new EP, Project 2024, out on Friday (Oct. 18).
LB Cantrell is Editor/Director of Operations at MusicRow magazine, where she oversees, manages and executes all company operations. LB oversees all MusicRow-related content, including the publication’s six annual print issues and online news. She is a Georgia native and a graduate of the Recording Industry Management program at Middle Tennessee State University.
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