Uber has been popularly touted as "everyone's private driver." With the company's imminent partnership with Spotify, it won't be long until Uber drivers will also play the role of the rider's private DJ.
Uber, which has its headquarters in San Francisco, announced that it is partnering with the popular online music service Spotify. This means that Uber customers will be able to access Spotify's streaming service, making them a potential regular user.
Spotify's user base now reaches 50 million. The company's service integration with Uber is part of its effort to gain an even wider reach, extending its app to more places and reaching more users. The strategic plan is to make the service more ubiquitous and more useful.
In the meantime, Spotify is also in the process of controlling music apps on its own platform. Recently, it had disabled App Finder in its desktop app version.
Uber, which has its services available in almost 50 countries, will have the opportunity to deliver a more personalized and pleasant ride to passengers once the deal begins to run in full swing. Moreover, it may help the company gain an edge over Lyft, another popular ride-hailing company, in dominating the transportation industry.
The technical specifics on how Uber and Spotify would be able to launch the feature is still unclear. There are speculations that a new app would be required to launch the feature.
Both companies have shown eagerness in working with several other Silicon Valley companies as a way to jumpstart their growth.
In 2011, Spotify entered a partnership with Facebook, with the music service earning millions of new users.
Uber, on the other hand, has teamed up with a number of companies, which include United Airlines, Starbucks, Morgan Stanley and the National Football League in order to promote its ride-hailing service to as many mainstream consumers as possible.
Spotify has been in the spotlight lately as the company found itself entangled in a public dispute with Taylor Swift. Swift has reportedly decided to remove her song catalogue from Spotify, allegedly saying that she was underpaid.
A conference call is scheduled in the coming week where the partnership between Uber and Spotify will be formally announced. Email invitations have been sent to reporters to join the conference call with Uber's chief executive Travis Kalanick. An unnamed "special partner guest" is also mentioned in the invitation. It is speculated that Daniel Ek, chief executive of Spotify, is the special guest.
