Spotify co-presents the Soul Train Awards, back on BET and CBS

Spotify said on 3 September that it will co-present the Soul Train Awards, which return to television this autumn. The streaming service published the news in its own newsroom. Digital Music News reported the same day that Spotify shares the presenting slot with Toyota and is the show’s exclusive music streaming partner.

The ceremony returns on 27 November after a three-year pause

According to the announcement, the taped ceremony airs on Friday 27 November at 8pm Eastern time. It was recorded in Chicago. The awards had not been held for three years. The franchise grew out of the Soul Train music programme, which shaped how R&B and soul reached American living rooms.

CBS carries the show alongside BET for the first time

BET is the main channel. CBS runs the ceremony at the same time, which the networks say has not happened before. BET HER, VH1, MTV2 and LOGO also carry it. Putting one night on a broadcast network and several cable channels at once is a way to reach viewers who no longer sit with one channel.

Spotify wants the night to work beyond the broadcast

Joe Hadley, Spotify’s global head of music content and partnerships, said in the announcement that for Spotify “it’s important to show up where culture is”. Kimmy Summers, who leads artist partnerships, said in the same release that Soul Train “has always represented more than music”. Both quotes come from Spotify’s own material, so they describe what the company wants the deal to do, not what it has achieved. Spotify says it plans activity around the show, not only during it.

A streaming brand buys one night to be seen next to artists

Music streaming services fight over the same catalogue. Almost every song sits on every service, so the product itself is hard to tell apart. Sponsoring a ceremony is one of the few ways a service can attach its name to artists and to a moment people talk about. That is the same logic behind other deals this year, from Google’s multi-year contract with MrBeast to the reshuffling of catalogues after the BMG and Concord merger. Audio brands are also moving onto screens, as Howard Stern’s move to HBO Max showed. For marketers watching this, the useful question is simple: what happens on the platform in the weeks around 27 November, not on the night itself.