Photo Credit: Thibault Penin
As it continues to expand its presence on the video-podcast side, Spotify is reportedly preparing to integrate full-length music videos.
Word of the music streaming giant’s latest feature – the Stockholm-headquartered company has continued building out in 2023 despite making layoffs and streamlining certain operations – recently emerged in a report from Bloomberg. Predictably, Spotify hadn’t commented publicly on the matter at the time of this writing.
But according to the detail-light piece at hand, the service “is considering adding full-length music videos” and “has already begun talking to partners about the product.” Worth noting is that the conveniently timed rumor entered the media spotlight just days after Spotify communicated that it had topped 100,000 on-platform video podcasts.
More broadly, the embrace of music videos would represent one component of a wider strategy to compete with ByteDance’s TikTok, which, having executed all manner of moves in the music space in recent months, is reportedly looking to debut a streaming platform of its own. Meanwhile, reports have indicated that Spotify (along with a number of different services) is testing other features popularized by the highly controversial short-form app.
Also on the video front, separate reports have relayed that YouTube Music is experimenting with a Shorts-like discovery feed for music videos – with listeners/viewers having the option of accessing full-length offerings directly from these clips.
Additionally, lesser-discussed players like Block’s Tidal, which will soon begin charging $10.99 per month for its HiFi plan in the States, have for some time been making music videos (as well as films and other video content yet) available to users.
Notwithstanding the seemingly far-reaching layoffs that Spotify’s announced on the year – including six percent of its workforce towards 2023’s start and approximately 200 podcasting employees last month – evidence suggests that the company is aggressively expanding its team on the engineering and product-development sides.
To be sure, Spotify during the final 10 or so days of June alone appeared to post on LinkedIn well over 50 job listings for positions in the U.S., with advertised roles such as “Director of Engineering – Awareness and Acquisition – Freemium” and “Engineering Manager – Client Platform,” to name a couple.
According to reports, Spotify is also prepping an offline playlist mix and, more significantly, a “Supremium” subscription tier. Slated to begin rolling out in non-U.S. markets later in 2023, per anonymous sources with knowledge of the matter, Supremium is set to encompass (besides a larger price tag) the long-awaited Spotify HiFi as well as monthly credits with which subscribers can access audiobooks.
