POWER 50 2025: Mikaela Lancaster (Spotify AU/NZ)

BACKGROUND CHECK:

Australia’s Spotify team is in good hands thanks to the team led by Mikaela Lancaster. 

Prior to joining Spotify, she was based in Asia as the Global Marketing Director for the freemium streaming video-on-demand service iflix, which had over 25 million active users across multiple countries. Her previous roles in Australia include management positions at the Daily Mail and NineMSN, following early-career foundations at Universal Music. 

Joining Spotify in 2020, Lancaster has guided the local operation through a turbulent time of music industry transformation and shown leadership amid a downturn of domestic consumption trends. 

THE YEAR IN AUSTRALIAN MUSIC:

Spotify has taken a vocal stand in the Australian market in 2025, launching the multi-million-dollar Turn Up Aus campaign to push Australian artists on its platform, as well as a multi-year deal with ARIA to support the awards, which were a great success. The platform also offered up its app for public voting, resulting in record engagement for Australian musicians. 

The platform’s massive backing of artists, including Ninajirachi and Don West, has created meaningful boosts to their national and international careers, and the local office remains one of the most vocal of the tech companies in pushing for Australian success, often putting promo dollars in where labels once did. 

The most recent estimates put 16 million Australians on the platform each month, or well over half the Australian population. Ably backed up by her team, including Alicia Sbrugnera and Ben Watts, Lancaster’s power of reach into people’s music streaming habits is undeniable. 

THE MUSIC SPEAKS:

You could be forgiven for putting your head down and trying to weather the PR storm this year if you were Spotify, but instead, they’ve taken a stand on AI, and the local office has come out fighting for visibility of Australian artists on and off platform. 

The reality is that as AUNZ boss, Mikaela can’t fix your algorithm, influence global label deals or turn the tide on the rise of AI, but she can get Australia an oversized chunk of marketing dollars for our artists, spending millions on advertising that makes a difference.

She can secure funding to keep the ARIA Awards going, even as sponsorship from labels and brands is at a difficult crossroads. She and her team can champion local artists to overseas curators. She can stand up and be visible, and choose to engage with the industry to find solutions to our domestic consumption issues, even as other tech companies can and do tell us to get stuffed. 

In our conversations with industry, one thing has come through loud and clear (no pun intended). Whatever you think about the streaming economy more generally, Australia is lucky to have Mikaela in the chair and an Australian team that cares about the future of our local artists.