{"id":249980,"date":"2026-01-29T16:14:50","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T16:14:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=249980"},"modified":"2026-02-03T14:58:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T14:58:20","slug":"key-songs-in-the-life-of-charlie-hellman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/key-songs-in-the-life-of-charlie-hellman\/","title":{"rendered":"Key Songs In The Life Of… Charlie Hellman"},"content":{"rendered":"

MBW’s Key Songs In The Life Of… is a series in which we ask influential music industry figures about the tracks that have defined their life and career so far. This time out it’s Spotify’s new(ish) Global Head of Music, Charlie Hellman. The Key Songs<\/strong>… series is supported by Sony Music Publishing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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MBW catches up with Charlie Hellman<\/strong>, Spotify\u2019s<\/strong> Global Head of Music, at the start of Grammys week in LA, just before the company revealed that in 2025 it paid out over $11 billion to the music industry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Payment to artists and copyright-holders is, says Hellman, one of the two most important things Spotify does; the other is helping people discover new music and emerging artists.<\/p>\n

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And discovery is what he is here to discuss, but in this instance it’s his own discoveries, via eight Key Songs in his life and career so far.\u00a0And so this journey does not involve algorithms or playlist curation (actually, one of them does, but we\u2019re talking about personally burning a bespoke CD, not New Music Friday or Fresh Finds), but family, friends, high school, college, first jobs, live shows – and even a car crash.<\/p>\n

Hellman, who became Head of Music late last year but has been at Spotify since 2011, describes the process of whittling down his vast and expanding musical universe to just eight tracks as \u201cactually easier than I expected, because every key turning point has had a specific song or artist tied to it. If you\u2019d asked me for my eight favorite songs, I\u2019m not sure I could ever do that…”<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/i><\/a><\/figure>1) Lyle Mays, ChoriHno (1988)<\/h6>\n

Music was my obsession from birth. I was the two-year-old begging my parents to get me any kind of music lessons.<\/p>\n

By the age of three, I was learning the piano, and my teacher, a woman named Rowen Basilicato, was exactly the kind of teacher I needed.<\/p>\n

She wasn’t rigid, insisting that I memorized these classical pieces that I wasn\u2019t interested in. What I was interested in was blues, and pop, and all sorts of stuff that she encouraged me to dive into.<\/p>\n

So I was always listening to all sorts of pianists, and then when I was maybe eight or nine, I was in my dad’s car on the way home from a piano lesson. We were listening to this Lyle Mays<\/strong> cassette, and this incredible song, Chorinho<\/em><\/strong>, came on.<\/p>\n

I vividly remember it, because I had this very distinct realization that I was never going to be this kind of virtuoso. I was blown away, it was incredible and I loved it, but also, deep down, it hit me: that\u2019s never going to be me.<\/p>\n

That was a pretty key moment for me, because after that I started getting very interested in ways that I could make my life about music without being a performer. I got curious about all the other careers you could have.<\/p>\n

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