The popular music streaming service Spotify could be planning an expansion into original video content, as the company announces a press event on May 20.
The report comes from the Wall Street Journal, claiming that Spotify's video service will be available to subscribers and non-subscribers. The story adds that Spotify is taking a look at people who make content for Google's YouTube for their service. It states:
The closely-held streaming service, which has shaken up the recording industry over the past few years, has been reaching out to companies that specialize in making content for YouTube to discuss both acquiring their material and co-creating original video series, said people familiar with the matter. Spotify has also reached out to some well-known traditional media companies.
Spotify sent invites to many media outlets today for a press event to be held May 20 in New York City, but details about what would be discussed were not revealed.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Reader comments
Spotify rumored to enter the video business, holding press event on May 20
Just speculation, but Stockholm based Spotify might be partnering up with another local company named Voddler, which began around the same year. Voddler was the Spotify for movies until it recently discontinued service, transferring from consumer to B2B with a new CEO. Their new global B2B product launched May 5, called Vnet, and it promises a bandwidth-efficient, peer supported CDN. It'd make timely sense if Spotify used Vnet as a backend for their plans.
I would to like to see a true YouTube competitor. I'm not saying they will achieve this, but I would like another option.