Two major names from the music business joined InnoLead on stage at our Impact 2024 conference last October: Panos Panay, President of the Recording Academy, which produces the Grammy Awards, and Ziad Sultan, Vice President of Personalization at Spotify. Among the topics they discussed with InnoLead co-founder Scott Kirsner:
The AI DJ and Personalization at Spotify
Sultan detailed the development of Spotify’s AI DJ, emphasizing the drive to make music discovery seamless and deeply personal. He explained, “We bought a company called Sonantic, based in London. That is the reason why you can have such a realistic voice. Then we created a product around it that allows it to choose music just for you. We really thought, what is the simplest version of it? And the simplest version of it is, it makes the choices, and if you don’t like it, you just hit the button, and it knows you, and it will explain to you its choices. …It’s the first AI product that actually explains to you what it’s doing.”
Awesomeness as a Business Case
Sultan introduced the unconventional idea of “awesomeness” as an element of some business cases, especially in new product development. He said, “Sometimes I just tell my team, awesomeness is a business case, right? … The reason you have senior experts, experienced people is they can actually put their chips on the table and say, ‘This is awesome enough that it’ll work itself out.’” This philosophy allows for judgment calls and creative risk-taking, even when traditional metrics may be hard to define.
Anxiety and Opportunity Around AI in Music
Panay and Sultan both addressed the creative community’s concerns about AI’s impact on music careers and artistry. Panay said, “Our community [of musicians and composers] has a lot of anxiety… Will AI replace entirely what I do? …I don’t want to downplay the anxiety that a lot of our community has, and it’s part of our job to work together with the Spotifys of the world to engineer whatever that future is going to be, and create the right conditions, and…the right ethical standards for how to push forward.” They also recognized the opportunities AI brings for new forms of creativity and collaboration.
The Impact of Streaming and Changing Consumer Behavior
Panay and Sultan discussed how streaming has transformed the music industry, both positively and negatively. Panay observed, “There’s the statistic that I heard: there are 100,000 songs a day that go on Spotify. That’s a tremendous volume… inevitably, we have members of our community that have been impacted adversely from that. On the other hand, I think that it’s brought to the fore… all kinds of new artists and new music.” Sultan added that Spotify’s mission is to help users discover new music and, in turn, help artists grow their audiences, maintaining a healthy ecosystem for all stakeholders.
Generative AI and the Future of Music Creation
The conversation turned to the rise of generative AI tools like Suno, which allow anyone to create music with prompts. Panay expresses both excitement and concern: “I would be a fool if I didn’t have concerns about it… But I go back to, ‘with your permission.’ That’s what I’d like to see… I’d like to have humans have agency, ultimately, over how their creativity, how their intellectual property is used, down to their image and likeness, which is the big issue right now.” Sultan framed Spotify’s role as supporting creative artists, regardless of how technology evolves, and ensuring that the platform remains a place where artists can succeed.
To watch the session, click “play” above. Our next Impact conference is coming up this Oct 20th-22nd, 2025 in Boston, MA.
