Newsletter #10: the Built for Shopify status, a lucrative Spotify strategy and colorful minimalism

Hi there,

I hope you're feeling good.

I just had an amazing day in London. I jumped on the first Eurostar of the day (7h13) and came back to Paris with the last one (20h01). That’s a 4h30 total train journey but it was absolutely worth it.

London is an exceptional city. I love its multiculturality, its architectural marvels and all of its events. Just its pulse of life really.

I was lucky to live there last year and I have great memories of it. This city will always have a special place in my heart.

In today's edition, we're discussing the Built for Shopify status, a lucrative Spotify strategy and colorful minimalism.

Let's dive in.

Work

At the beginning of the year, Shopify introduced a game changer for Shopify app developers: the Built for Shopify status.This status is the highest level of recognition and achievement that a public Shopify app can reach.It grants many benefits such as a search ranking boost and eligibility for promotion on the app store’s homepage.One of the criteria to get the Built for Shopify status is to be embedded in the Shopify admin.So this status is also a great opportunity for smaller apps to get a better visibility and credibility against some bigger apps which are not embedded and thus will not be eligible to this status.

Applications for the Built for Shopify status started on March 1st, 2023.

Many apps already received it.

One thing worth noting is that, when merchants are searching the Shopify app store, they can now filter to only show the applications that have the Built for Shopify status.

This is an undeniable competitive advantage for those applications.

Learn more about the Built for Shopify status in Shopify’s documentation.

Inspire

One of my favorite podcasts is My First Million by Sam Parr and Shaan Puri.

Sam and Shaan are both entrepreneurs who sold their respective companies for millions of dollars a few years ago.

In 2014, Sam created The Hustle, a media company built around a daily tech and business newsletter which had more than 1 million subscribers. He sold it to Hubspot for $27 million.

In February, Shaan co-founded The Milk Road with his business partner Ben Levy. The Milk Road Road is a newsletter about crypto. After only 10 months, they had gathered 250K+ subscribers and sold to Bitfo, a media company that operates several crypto websites, for an undisclosed amount.

Every week, Sam and Shaan brainstorm new business ideas and break them down to hightlight their pros and cons. They also interview entrepreneurs such as Pieter Levels.

I enjoy the topics discussed in this podcast, as well as its overall vibe.

Sam and Shaan really make a great duo, they’re very complementary. When you’ve listened to a good number of episodes, you start predicting what each of them is going to think of the business idea they are presenting. I like the insights they’re bringing to the table, their ambition and their contagious joy.

One of my favorite episodes of My First Million came out this month.

Sam and Shaan interviewed Connor Price and his wife Breanna Price.

Connor Price is a 28 year old rapper from Toronto. Him and his wife Breanna established a winning content strategy for his music.

For each of his songs, they record a YouTube short video to promote it in a very original way.

Connor got viral with his “spin the globe” series where he spins a globe, selects a country on it and has to find an artist from this country to record a song with him. In reality, the song is already made and the artist was not selected that way at all, but this storytelling was super impactful and appreciated.

Connor also does a recurring series where he’s in his music studio and the artist who was supposed to record a featuring with him does not show up. This artist is then replaced by someone who just happens to be there: his producer, his brother, and so on. Very smart!

My two favorite videos are the one with the carrott flute and the one with the producer jumping in.

After discussing their content strategy, Connor and Breanna talked about numbers and it was very interesting.

They presented the structure of their monthly income, ranked in order of importance:

1. Spotify: they have 60 million streams per month, which bring them a massive total of $240K per month!

2. YouTube

3. Brand deals: 6-figure deals handled by a brand agent

4. Syncs: songs played in commercials on TV or in video games

5. Merchandising

6. Live shows: it’s mainly popup shows and festivals for now. Tours are not lucrative enough yet to focus on them.

Learn more about Connor Price by listening to this podcast episode, following him on YouTube or listening to him on Spotify.

Explore

I enjoy exploring the world through art.

I recently discovered an artist called PosterLad, who specializes in what he calls “colorful minimalism”.

I love his work. It’s minimal yet appealing to look at.

Learn more by visiting his website.

Enjoy.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for reading this edition until the end.

I'll talk to you soon.

Take good care of yourself.

Coralie