One day a week, in office hours, James Foley and his colleague Sam Lee take themselves away from their computers to hide in a room and listen to music, before scrawling all over the glass wall and sticking up pictures of various musicians. Today in the sunlit room, the day after one such session, the pictures include the folk-blues duo Angus and Julia Stone and Jungle, who make funk-infused music.
For 32-year-old Mr Foley is the head of editorial in the west London office of Deezer, the French music streaming service, which launched in 2007. The rival to Spotify opened its London office in 2011. Today there are 200 employees in 15 offices around the world making the service available in 180 countries.
The scrawls and pictures in the room represent schedules and plans for bands and singers the editorial team plans to promote over the coming weeks. Mr Foley points to a picture of Jessie Ware, the British singer-songwriter. “We’ve decided her single is something we want to feature and maybe do more on.”