Spotify Press & Performance Experience
A defining moment in music and tech, brought to life through experience.
As Spotify rapidly expanded its global footprint, the brand set out to create a high-impact, dual-format event in New York City that would engage both the press and industry audiences while reinforcing its cultural authority. The single-day program combined a live-streamed press announcement with an intimate, high-energy evening performance experience.
The raw interior of Cedar Lake Dance Center was transformed into a sleek, white, broadcast-ready environment, anchored by a curved LED main stage and immersive digital canvas spanning a 28-foot screen and flanking LED columns. The daytime program, hosted by CEO Daniel Ek, delivered major platform updates and a headline-making announcement: Metallica’s full catalog joining Spotify. A surprise onstage reunion between Lars Ulrich and Sean Parker became the most talked-about and widely shared moment of the event.
Within hours, the space evolved for the evening experience, seamlessly shifting from press forum to live music venue. Multiple staging environments supported performances by Vampire Weekend, Janelle Monáe, and Frank Ocean, with a custom audio system designed to accommodate in-the-round and multi-stage formats. As the night continued, DJ SBTRKT closed out the experience in a transformed lounge setting.
Our team led creative development and full-scale production, from scenic and technical design to live broadcast and content integration, delivering a dynamic, multi-layered event that merged announcement, performance, and cultural impact in a single, seamless experience.
Guests received their first taste of technological innovation at registration, where they were welcomed by name on a reactive LED screen installation covering the full width of the entry wall. A large lunch café was created with a décor scheme that incorporated custom-built, ceiling-high steel LED frames draped with foliage to create smaller, intimate restaurant-style spaces that displayed both technology and nature.
A series of breakout sessions presented content targeted to attendees’ varied interests, while imagery displayed throughout the venue showcased real-life applications of how products designed to empower developers help to unleash the power of data and reimagine possibilities that will improve our world.
Every element of Microsoft Connect(); from registration, breakfast and keynote, to lunch and evening cocktails, were custom-designed to communicate exacting brand messaging and to deliver a high-touch guest experience to this important audience. The keynote and breakout sessions were livestreamed through an onsite studio built for this purpose and content was watched online by millions around the world.
Empire is proud to collaborate with Microsoft on this annual, top-tier business communication event.
To view excerpts of Connect(); 2017, please visit https://www.microsoft.com/connectevent
