Spotify is ramping up its service to compete with Apple by moving beyond music. The new streaming service will now offer live radio, podcasts and video as well as music that plays in beat with your running stride.
Spotify's new streaming channel will feature video and audio content from media partners such as Vice News, Comedy Central and Nerdist. The new platform includes "Songza-like" personalized playlists that will line up music, news and entertainment to match the user's daily routine in both video and audio format.
The announcement was made by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek at a press event in New York City on May 20. Ek described the move as a "massive leap forward" as he outlined the new Spotify, which essentially aims to provide you with all your daily audio and video needs.
"We're bringing you a deeper, richer, more immersive Spotify experience," said Ek, "We want Spotify to help soundtrack your life by offering an even wider world of entertainment with an awesome mix of the best music, podcasts and video delivered to you throughout your day. And we're just getting started."
The new Spotify, which the Swedish company has dubbed the "Now experience," will feature intelligent personalized playlists. It will learn from what you do at various times of the day and what you're listening to and remember it so it can replicate your playlist for your various activities — quite like Songza did. Songza was bought by Google for an undisclosed sum in 2014.
In addition to showing off video clips from Vice News, Comedy Central and Nerdist, Ek unveiled an impressive list of media partners, including major news organizations (NBC, BBC and ESPN), popular podcasts (TWiT, RadioLab) and online media sites. The full list of partners announced in the presentation is: ABC, Adult Swim, BBC, Comedy Central, E!, ESPN, Fusion, Maker Studios, MTV, NBC, RadioLab, Slate, TED, TWiT, Vice News and WNYC.
There will also be some original content created by Spotify, including dance videos, radio shows and music specially written for the company's new running feature. Spotify Running detects your running pace, searches the company's database of millions of songs and finds music that is exactly in step with your running stride. Ek also announced a deal that will make Spotify Running available through the Nike+ app later in the year.
The Spotify revamp comes just as Apple is expected to enter the streaming music market in June following its $3 billion acquisition of Beats Music last year. It's unclear exactly what Apple's service will look like, but there's every chance that it could include video just like iTunes.
The new video formats could also bring new advertising revenue to the Swedish company. At the moment, Spotify relies on a premium subscription model, but the majority of its users use the free version of the software. The record labels want Spotify to ditch the free version, but adding video advertising could be a way of generating substantial revenue from nonsubscription customers.
The new Now start page experience will begin rolling out May 20 to iPhone users in the U.S., U.K., Germany and Sweden — with more markets and platforms to follow in the near future. Spotify Running will start rolling out to iPhone users globally.
