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Spotify plotting move into video

By | Published on Friday 8 May 2015

Spotify

Having long resisted calls by some in the music community to add video into the mix, word has it Spotify is now considering a move into the visual, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that the streaming music firm has opened talks with traditional media companies and multi-channel networks about acquiring and creating video-based content.

And with Spotify announcing a press event in New York on 20 May – sneakily getting in before any big iBeats announcement that may or many not be made at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference next month – many are now wondering if some sort of video offer might be the big bit of news the company has to share.

Given the people Spotify has reportedly been approaching, it seems likely the company would be looking for original programming rather than just music videos, and the move may be a way to secure – or create – exclusive content that could differentiate its offer within the ever competitive streaming music market, where Apple and Tidal are expected to pursue an assortment of artist exclusives to gain competitive advantage.

It may also be that Spotify execs reckon there are more opportunities for advertising and brand partnerships in video than with audio. Although Spotify’s freemium level is ad-funded, the company is not a major player in the advertising space – the free service now very much a marketing tool rather than a standalone business – but a move into video could open up some new revenue potential to help prop up the more contentious free-to-the-user side of the firm’s operation.

It seems unlikely Spotify would go fully into video-on-demand – ie put itself into competition with the Netflixes and Amazons of the world – instead focusing more on short-form and music-related video content. Though that still puts it in competition – both for users and advertisers – with YouTube and Facebook’s increasingly major play in video, not to mention, on the subscriptions side, start-ups like Vessel.



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