Spotify Rolling Out Video Content
Music streaming service Spotify has announced plans to debut video content on its Android app. The video feature will be released to Android users this week, while iOS users will receive video sometime next week.
In a Wall Street Journal story published Monday, Spotify’s vice president of product Shiva Rajaraman noted, “…our primary user is a music fan, and they are not necessarily leaning in and looking into the app,” While video might get some users to spend more time in the app, the biggest issue is getting them to pay attention to content in an app that most use in the background.
Another big concern was over advertising and the number of ads that you would see while watching videos in the app. Spotify says that videos will be ad-free for now, but you can probably expect that to change in the near future. As most users opt for the free, ad-based subscription over the $10 per month premium service, Spotify took a 165 million euro loss in 2014, which raised questions about profitability for the music streaming service.
Spotify is based in Sweden and boasts more than 75 million users, more than Pandora, Apple Music, or Rhapsody, making it by far the largest music streaming app.
