Audio streaming service Spotify has opened a listening lounge at its London headquarters, featuring a bespoke speaker system and a material palette chosen to enhance the room's acoustic properties.
The Spotify Listening Lounge is a purpose-built acoustic space designed to provide an immersive setting for users to experience the company's lossless audio offering.
Spotify has opened a listening lounge at its London headquarters
The facility was designed in collaboration with local studio Cake Architecture and features a bespoke sound system developed by London-based loudspeaker design studio Friendly Pressure.
Spotify claimed that the listening room aims to celebrate listening as a communal, intentional experience, with access granted to artists' top fans and Spotify Premium users.
The lounge is a purpose-built acoustic space
"The Listening Lounge is where technology, craftsmanship and culture align," said the company's head of marketing for the UK and Ireland Billie Baier.
"By bringing lossless audio into a purpose-built environment, we're demonstrating the full potential of streaming and fostering a deeper connection between fans and the music they love."
Slate floors and steel details create a threshold between the urban setting and the lounge space
Guests are welcomed into a reception area featuring warm lighting, slate floors and steel details that help to create a threshold between the bustling urban setting and the intimate lounge space.
The main listening room features brown hues and tactile surfaces
The main listening room utilises a palette of brown hues and tactile surfaces that recede into the background to focus attention on the raised, backlit sound system.
The room is simply furnished with plump, upholstered pieces from furniture brand Afra and designer Tobia Scarpa's Soriana collection.
Cake Architecture said that "every surface pattern and material choice was a functional decision"
"Collaborating with Spotify and Friendly Pressure allowed us to treat the room itself as an instrument," said Cake creative director Hugh Scott Moncrieff.
"Every surface pattern and material choice was a functional decision to eliminate interference, ensuring that the craftsmanship of the speakers is matched by the precision of the architecture surrounding them."
New York-based acoustician Ethan Bourdeau helped to refine the space's acoustic design, with each wall featuring a calibrated surface pattern that disperses frequencies evenly around the room.
The audio system used in the lounge was created by Shivas Howard-Brown of Friendly Pressure and features custom-made cabinets along with a frosted glass version of the brand's signature waveguide horn.
The space will host year-round programming for music fans
"Growing up in and around recording studios exposed me to a whole heritage of craft," Howard-Brown said.
"Sound systems built in sheds, speakers designed for carnival stacks – these have always had the same ambition as anything you'd find in a high-end listening room. This new space is my attempt to make that argument."
The speaker system references a golden era of British audio engineering
The speaker system references a golden era of British audio engineering, utilising components including Alnico magnet drivers that would have featured in the famous Abbey Road recording studio throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s.
The Spotify Listening Lounge launched with an event hosted by UK artists Joy Crookes, Nao and Yazmin Lacey and will host year-round programming for music fans.
In 2021, Spotify began redesigning its offices to give them a more homely feel, with a focus on improving acoustics and introducing softer, cosier spaces.
