Spotify: WTC sounds good

SPOTIFY IS MUSIC to Gov. Cuomo’s ears in more ways than one.

Cuomo celebrated an announcement Wednesday that the music streaming service is relocating and expanding its U.S. headquarters to 4 World Trade Center by releasing his very own New York-centric Spotify playlist.

Spotify’s relocation will create more than 1,000 new jobs and retain 832 others that had been working out of the company’s Manhattan office.

As part of the deal, Spotify for 15 years of its lease will receive up to $11 million from a state rent reduction incentive program created to lure businesses back to the World Trade Center site.

The relocation also means that the building owned by developer Larry Silverstein is the first to be fully leased on the 16-acre World Trade Center site.

“New York is rapidly emerging as the nation's leading hub for tech and innovation, creating more jobs and more opportunities and emerging as the epicenter of the 21st economy,” Cuomo said.

“We are proud to welcome Spotify to 4 World Trade Center and to have the future of music be a part of the bright future of our dynamic tech community,” Cuomo said.

Spotify started looking for New York office space in September before negotiating its new deal. The company’s current Chelsea-based office will eventually close.

Spotify general counsel Horacio Gutierrez said CEO Daniel Ek made the decision to move to New York after the company’s staff doubled in size and outgrew its current space, noting the city’s role in music and media, as well as its growing tech sector.

“In the end we’re incredibly happy to be in New York,” he said. “That was where we wanted to be.”

Gutierrez said the new jobs will include engineers, marketing, analytics, and a host of other critical business functions.

“We hire a tremendous number of engineers,” he said. “New York is not only our national headquarters. It’s our headquarters for the Americas.”

In putting together his 36-track Spotify playlist, Cuomo leaned heavily on New York, including his friend Billy Joel, who had four songs on the list. Included were “New York State of Mind” and “Downeaster Alexa,” which is about the Long Island fishing industry.

Two Bruce Springsteen songs made the list, his post-9/11 anthem, “The Rising,” and his Pete Seeger tribute, “Erie Canal.”