What Happened
Leading music streaming service Spotify is diving deeper into video content with the announcement of 12 music-centered shows coming to its platform. The slate of original content includes Spotify’s first scripted show “Ultimate/Ultimate,” a mockumentary series about the electronic dance music scene produced by Tim Robbins, as well as several reality series shows, live performance shows, and documentaries. The original programming will be available for all users in U.S., U.K., Sweden, and Germany at initial rollout.
Why Brands Should Care
Spotify first added video content to its service in January this year when it packaged short-form videos from media partners such as BBC, ABC, and ESPN into category-specific playlists. With the original video content, Spotify is making a stronger push. Out of the 100 million global users Spotify currently has, only 30 million are paid subscribers, meaning about 70 million Spotify users are on the ad-supported, free tier. Spotify already introduced video ads to its service in 2014, allowing non-paying users to watch a video spot in exchange for 30 minutes of uninterrupted listening. Although there is currently no detail on how Spotify plans to monetize the original video content, it is safe to assume that it would soon be open to ads.
Source: The Verge
