Breaking Through The Business with Alya Fetyani

By Abby Garcia, Office Operations Coordinator

 

We sat down with Alya Fetyani, Label Services Project Manager at Vydia, to learn how her Middle Eastern heritage, love for music, and data-driven mindset shape the way she empowers artists to grow.  With a unique global perspective, Alya has helped artists across a multitude of genres break boundaries and connect with fans around the world.

 

Q: What is your current title, and what are some of your responsibilities at Vydia?

I am a Label Services Project Manager, and my job is to work with artists and their teams on pre-and post-release strategies, ensuring their music reaches as many people as possible, helping them grow their fanbase, and setting them up for long-term success. I assist in allocating their marketing budgets, help them hire vendors to collaborate with, and, of course, pitch their music to global editorial teams. I help our artists land out-of-home opportunities, participate in cultural moments, and recommend them for various programs around the world. 

 

Q: Thinking back, was there a specific moment when you realized you wanted a career in music?

I was always the kid who would be up at like 6:00 am on the weekends, and I would sit in front of the TV watching music videos with my little black and white composition notebook, writing down the names of every single song until the house woke up. I wish I still had those notebooks, but music really was always a part of my life in one way or another.

I originally went to college to study theater because I loved all the moving parts and being around creatives, and eventually I graduated with a double major in theatre and media studies. In my last semester of undergrad, I took a music business class, and I don’t know why it had never clicked to me that, of course, there’s a whole business behind the music industry. I kind of always had a surface-level view and didn’t think too deeply about the intricacies of all the moving parts that got artists in front of fans. 

That class, Music Curation in Media, was a major “aha” moment; everything just clicked, and immediately it all made sense. I was always the kid who had headphones glued to their head; now I’m the adult who always has headphones glued to their head. 

 

Q: How did you get your first opportunity in music, and what steps helped you land it?

I started in the industry at Tidal when I was already in grad school, when I was around 24. I was a Digital Marketing Intern, which was kind of like a catch-all bucket title, because there were only a handful of other people on the US team since the platform had just been acquired by Roc Nation only a few months prior. In between projects, I did a lot of digging through the app and analyzing artist profiles out of my own curiosity. I realized that the Arabic catalog on the app was a complete mess; the metadata was all over the place. Whenever I wanted to listen to music from home, it was impossible to find because artists had multiple profiles in various languages and spelling variations. I took it upon myself to create a database of all of the Arabic music on the platform, with notes on what needed to be corrected, and I would send it to the overseas engineering team to clean up. That fun little side project would prove to be a crucial step towards major growth in my career and has been a crucial part of every job I’ve had. 

 

Q: Were there any challenges you faced early in your career that turned into valuable lessons you carry with you today?

One of the biggest challenges I faced was navigating the intense competition in New York City, especially in the music and entertainment industries, which, on the surface, often appear glamorous and fun but don’t really reflect the hours of hard work it takes to be successful. I remember going through rounds of interviews for internships, sometimes 10 or more, only to be passed over for a candidate who happened to be someone in the company’s friend.

On top of that, being a multicultural, multilingual woman with a global perspective wasn’t something the industry necessarily valued. The rejections pushed me to figure out how to carve out my own space and build something that truly set me apart. So, I created I Made You a Mixtape, a project that allowed me, as a passionate music fan, to dig deeper into global music and discover artists that DSPs weren’t surfacing on their own.

 

Q: Before you began at Vydia, you worked at Spotify. Could you tell us about your role at Spotify and how you transferred those skills into your role at Vydia?

I spent about five years at Spotify, the first four as a Data Curator and the last as a Global Editorial Project Manager. The Data Curation team was responsible for the user experience of each one of the platform’s personalized products. We embedded with engineering teams across research and development, did a ton of testing and tweaking, and played a crucial role in the quality of Spotify’s music and podcast recommendations. To help visualize the scope of the work, I always tell people, “From the minute you open the app until the minute you close it, I have touched pretty much every single part of the user journey.” Some of the products I was fortunate to work on were Discover Weekly,  the annual global Wrapped campaigns, artist radio, Fresh Finds, and much more. 

In my last year at the company, I moved over to the global editorial team. There, I was the Project Manager for social equity initiatives, responsible for creating and implementing programs such as GLOW and EQUAL, and finding additional opportunities to uplift marginalized groups and artists. I communicated with our global editors every single day about their priorities and releases, which helped me develop a deep understanding of different cultures and artists.

These days, it’s very easy for me to talk to artists and their teams anywhere in the world. I love diving into an artist’s data to uncover growth opportunities and identify key fan segments, then advising on how to engage those audiences across platforms. I use the available data to help shape effective release strategies tailored to each artist’s unique journey. I also have a strong understanding of how editorial teams operate and what drives their priorities, so when it’s time to pitch a project, I know how to position it. Ultimately, it’s about crafting a compelling story that gives fans a reason to care for and support the artist.

 

Q: Earlier, you mentioned a passion project of yours called I Made You A Mixtape. Can you tell us more about this project? What inspired it, and any opportunities that came from it?

Growing up in the Middle East and attending an international school, I was exposed to a wide range of cultures. At the time, the majority of our TV and music channels came from across Asia and Europe, and they broadcast music from all over the world. I’ve always loved music in many different languages, and having friends from so many different backgrounds made me curious about what they were listening to. I often got overwhelmed by how much music was available on streaming platforms, but I joke that I have a fear of missing out on good music (FOMOOGM). I Made You A Mixtape was kind of an “A&R” approach to discovery, where I’d announce themes that were highly relatable and encourage people to contribute to the curation based on their own lived experiences. 

It was so interesting to think about how diverse our tastes were, even when it came down to a single prompt. The first theme I solicited music for was “what is a song that’s too hard to listen to because it reminds you of someone who broke your heart?”.  The replies absolutely blew my mind; every genre and language was represented, and each person had a wholly unique reason for their submission. 

Every two weeks for a couple of years, I would send out new prompts. I watched the community of curators grow, sending me DM’s, texts, emails, you name it, people really wanted to be involved in the final playlist. I have a whole notes section on my phone of ideas I collected over the years. “What is a song that reminds you of your mom?” or  “What is your top song on Wrapped this year?” “What’s the first song you want to hear at a club when they open post-pandemic?” There was a prompt for every life moment.  

I launched I Made You A Mixtape a few months before I got hired at Spotify, and I think that opened some doors for me because I wasn’t just sitting around doing nothing. I was actively engaging in the global music community, and I was having so much fun doing it in a new and innovative way. A very cool side effect is that it also created a space for me to meet artists and their teams, and I became a trusted source to them.

 

Q: What advice would you give to young professionals on using their hobbies and passions to gain tangible experience they can use for their careers? 

I’ve always had mixed feelings about the idea of turning your just-for-fun hobbies into a career. On one hand, it sounds ideal to get paid to do what you already love, but as someone whose work and passion are one and the same, it can be tough to separate my personal and professional life. That said, I’ve also always believed in building for what you wish existed and fills a gap in your life. For me, that was a way to find music from all over the world, recommended to me by people I personally knew and trusted. At the same time, I don’t think it’s a bad thing at all if your hobbies have nothing to do with your career. I honestly believe that having diverse interests can expand your perspectives, which can add real depth to your skillset, and more often than not, those skills are transferable. For example, if you love working with wood and teaching yourself how to build furniture from scratch, that’s a hands-on approach to problem-solving. Those are the same analytical skills you could apply when looking at data or mapping out an artist’s career path. Skills cross over more than we realize, and very often it’s those “unrelated” passions that give you the most unique perspective in your career.

 

Q: You’ve been a strong advocate for the emergence of Middle Eastern music and culture on the global stage. How has your background shaped your approach to your career, the kinds of projects that inspire you, and the work you do with Vydia artists?

My background shapes everything I do in my personal and professional life, which is just to say, I have a totally unique perspective on a lot of things. Because I have knowledge of the culture and I understand the language and nuances, it’s very easy for me to talk to a lot of artists from the region. I know where the gaps in the industry are. I know what they’re missing fundamentally.  It’s a lot of education, and a lot of processes that aren’t in place yet. I can very easily talk to artists about, “Hey, did you register your music with this PRO? Have you claimed your accounts?” They are usually like, “I have no idea what that is, it doesn’t exist here.” Whatever it is. 

I think we’re really seeing a huge shift in how people consume music in different languages. We’re seeing a lot of crossovers in genres and inspirations. A lot of taking instruments from one region and synths from another, and creating something in a multilingual environment, or creating a multilingual project. 

I think my background has helped shape my career because I come into everything with that global perspective. If you’re a huge artist in the US on Spotify, that’s amazing, but you have a million listeners on Deezer in France, and you don’t even know about it because you’re not familiar with the platform.

Deezer isn’t big in the US. So, I immediately go into an artist’s data and see their North American numbers are great. How can we figure out where the other fans are, and how can we help them connect to fans on whatever platform they use? We want to make it really easy for everyone to be able to discover and find their new favorite artist.

 

Q: What recent career wins have been the most meaningful to you and why?

Working on the Mariah Carey Here for It All rollout has been an incredible experience. Collaborating with big legacy artists is always a huge career win, because it’s like I am thinking back to when I was that kid at 6:00 in the morning writing down names, and I can tell you that Mariah Carey was one of them whose music videos I was watching.

It is a pinch-me moment, like, “What did I create for myself?” in the best way. I was singing Akon in high school in my classes, and now I’m helping him perform in Saudi Arabia.

We also landed a billboard for an artist called 646yf4t for Fresh Finds, which is a huge full-circle moment for me because I helped work on Fresh Finds at Spotify. Now, I get to pitch these indie artists who have two or three singles to their name for a billboard. 

We’ve had a lot of big wins for artists who are brand new in their careers. That’s why I love talking to any up-and-coming artists. Even if you only have one song, and you have barely any monthly listeners,  that shouldn’t stop you. If the music is good, you can get that support. I’m here,  and I want to help you get that support.

 

Q: Lastly, if you had to choose one song to be the soundtrack to your journey, what would it be and why?

Paradis: “Sur Une Chanson En Français”

Bio: Alya Fetyani is a Saudi-American Artist and Label Services Project Manager at Vydia/gamma. specializing in global release strategies, marketing, and data storytelling across the independent music landscape. With over a decade of experience spanning DSPs, recording studios, sonic branding agencies, and cultural consulting, she has collaborated with a diverse roster of talent ranging from multi-GRAMMY-winning global icons to emerging artists at the start of their careers.

Interested in joining Vydia’s platform? Request an invite today.