Spotify expands video into original programming, setting up battle with Apple Music
Music streaming service Spotify on Monday announced plans for 12 new original video series, in a move which could further intensify competition with second-place rival Apple Music.
Episodes of each show will stay under 15 minutes in length, and be available to both free and Premium subscribers in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Sweden, Bloomberg reported. One of the series is Landmark, which will tell the story of important moments in music history. Two episodes shot so far cover Metallica and the famous Beach Boys album Pet Sounds.
Each edition of Rush Hour will see two hip-hop acts collaborate on music they then have to perform live. Meanwhile, an as-yet unnamed mockumentary produced by actor/director Tim Robbins will parody music talent competitions.
A second phase of shows, coming later, will see Spotify branch into original comedy and animation. Negotiations are reportedly set to begin with the next few weeks.
Spotify has already had video for about a year, but only from outside sources like Comedy Central and the BBC. The material is also viewable only in the service's mobile apps, rather than on the Web or through Mac and Windows clients.
Apple has so far only dabbled in hosting shows on Apple Music, but is known to be working on a series featuring one of its own executives, Beats co-founder Dr. Dre. That show may break with Apple's normally sanitized public image by containing both sexual and violent content.
Episodes of each show will stay under 15 minutes in length, and be available to both free and Premium subscribers in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Sweden, Bloomberg reported. One of the series is Landmark, which will tell the story of important moments in music history. Two episodes shot so far cover Metallica and the famous Beach Boys album Pet Sounds.
Each edition of Rush Hour will see two hip-hop acts collaborate on music they then have to perform live. Meanwhile, an as-yet unnamed mockumentary produced by actor/director Tim Robbins will parody music talent competitions.
A second phase of shows, coming later, will see Spotify branch into original comedy and animation. Negotiations are reportedly set to begin with the next few weeks.
Spotify has already had video for about a year, but only from outside sources like Comedy Central and the BBC. The material is also viewable only in the service's mobile apps, rather than on the Web or through Mac and Windows clients.
Apple has so far only dabbled in hosting shows on Apple Music, but is known to be working on a series featuring one of its own executives, Beats co-founder Dr. Dre. That show may break with Apple's normally sanitized public image by containing both sexual and violent content.
Comments
25 DOLLARS!
I remember how I liked iTunes Music Store after some time it was up, since it covered nearly all my mainstream music and hence became the one go-to place for me to buy digital downloads. Most of the other stuff I like was never in any download star anyway. Even today and being to some degree a lazy customer I skipped the occasional movie that did not make it into the iTMS since I much more dislike having to sign up for several services and search through all of them. Kind of defeats the purpose IMHO.
Regarding music streaming, I am really curious how sustainable that business model will turn out to be. Mainly because buying licenses and downloading the song (which is what iTMS and others do) lasted shorter than i thought it would ( A bit like how DVDs were caught off guard by the downloading and streaming market), and because of the -according to my perception - strong trend for "listening to some music" being more and more replaced by "youtubing music".
If anyone has some data on how the music industry does today compared to 5, 10 years ago (I mean total rev + profit wise) I would be thankful for sharing this.
Edit: I found this: http://www.statista.com/statistics/272305/global-revenue-of-the-music-industry/ indicating the overall decline plateauing out over the last years, as well as http://www.statista.com/statistics/272306/worldwide-revenues-of-the-music-industry-by-category/ indicating the ongoing decline of physical vs. growth of digital.
Here th most comprehensive report I could find: http://www.ifpi.org/downloads/Digital-Music-Report-2015.pdf
Bad: Apple is letting Dre's sex and violence influence the creative direction