Spotify may be preparing HomePod competitor with entrance into hardware market
Spotify could be gearing up to take on Apple's HomePod with its own competing smart speaker or other hardware, after new job advertisements for the music streaming service reveal it is looking for employees to set up the manufacturing process for its first physical products.
Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek. | Source: Spotify
Three notices on Spotify's own recruitment website, found by Musically, relate to hardware production fields at various levels. The "Senior Project Manager, Hardware Production" and "Project Manager, Hardware Production & Engineering" roles details jobs overseeing the project that will help in the "creation of innovative Spotify experiences via connected hardware."
A third listing, "Operations Manager, Hardware Product," is more direct in advising of the firm's goal, stating "Spotify is on its way to creating its first physical products and setting up an operational organization for manufacturing, supply chain, sales, and marketing."
The advertising for new employees in those positions do indicate that Spotify wants to start manufacturing hardware, but that it still early in the overall process. References to working with third-party designers, contractors, and manufacturers, as well as one job's role including managing inventory and the supply chain, strongly points to this being a production effort that would use an assembly partner, such as Foxconn, instead of setting up its own production lines.
It is worth noting that the existence of the job postings are not a sign that Spotify will commence manufacturing efforts in the near future. Such roles could be filled long in advance, giving the company an opportunity to plan out the process long before it commits to manufacturing.
Currently, Spotify does not provide any hardware of its own, instead relying on working with other hardware producers to make Spotify work with third-party devices. This does leave Spotify vulnerable in cases where hardware producers decline to work with the company and makes it difficult to use the streaming music service with its hardware, such as with Apple's HomePod not including native Spotify support, forcing it to be used through AirPlay.
Developing its own hardware would enable Spotify to have control over how the end user experiences the service, as well as what other streaming competitors would be allowed to use the device.
So far, it is unclear exactly what kind of products Spotify intends to produce, but given its audio-centric nature, it is likely to be some form of smart speaker, similar to the HomePod and Amazon's Echo range. The latest job ads do not indicate the product category, but The Guardian reports other postings from April last year state Spotify wants to create "a category defining product akin to Pebble Watch, Amazon Echo, and Snap Spectacles."
Other job ads at that time for a "Product Manager, Voice" and "Director of Product, Natural Language Understanding" were detailed as working to make Spotify work more efficiently with voice-based systems, such as in cars or with third-party apps. Considering the more recent hardware-related postings, it is entirely possible these earlier postings could have been part of an effort by Spotify to start working on its own smart speaker or similar products.
Currently, Spotify is the most popular music streaming service in the world, with upwards of 70 million paid Premium subscribers, and possibly as many free listeners, but it is facing fierce competition from Apple Music in the United States. It is reported Apple Music is increasing its subscriber count by 5 percent per month compared to Spotify's 2 percent monthly growth rate, which could lead to Apple Music overtaking Spotify in terms of subscribers in the U.S by the summer.
Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek. | Source: Spotify
Three notices on Spotify's own recruitment website, found by Musically, relate to hardware production fields at various levels. The "Senior Project Manager, Hardware Production" and "Project Manager, Hardware Production & Engineering" roles details jobs overseeing the project that will help in the "creation of innovative Spotify experiences via connected hardware."
A third listing, "Operations Manager, Hardware Product," is more direct in advising of the firm's goal, stating "Spotify is on its way to creating its first physical products and setting up an operational organization for manufacturing, supply chain, sales, and marketing."
The advertising for new employees in those positions do indicate that Spotify wants to start manufacturing hardware, but that it still early in the overall process. References to working with third-party designers, contractors, and manufacturers, as well as one job's role including managing inventory and the supply chain, strongly points to this being a production effort that would use an assembly partner, such as Foxconn, instead of setting up its own production lines.
It is worth noting that the existence of the job postings are not a sign that Spotify will commence manufacturing efforts in the near future. Such roles could be filled long in advance, giving the company an opportunity to plan out the process long before it commits to manufacturing.
Currently, Spotify does not provide any hardware of its own, instead relying on working with other hardware producers to make Spotify work with third-party devices. This does leave Spotify vulnerable in cases where hardware producers decline to work with the company and makes it difficult to use the streaming music service with its hardware, such as with Apple's HomePod not including native Spotify support, forcing it to be used through AirPlay.
Developing its own hardware would enable Spotify to have control over how the end user experiences the service, as well as what other streaming competitors would be allowed to use the device.
So far, it is unclear exactly what kind of products Spotify intends to produce, but given its audio-centric nature, it is likely to be some form of smart speaker, similar to the HomePod and Amazon's Echo range. The latest job ads do not indicate the product category, but The Guardian reports other postings from April last year state Spotify wants to create "a category defining product akin to Pebble Watch, Amazon Echo, and Snap Spectacles."
Other job ads at that time for a "Product Manager, Voice" and "Director of Product, Natural Language Understanding" were detailed as working to make Spotify work more efficiently with voice-based systems, such as in cars or with third-party apps. Considering the more recent hardware-related postings, it is entirely possible these earlier postings could have been part of an effort by Spotify to start working on its own smart speaker or similar products.
Currently, Spotify is the most popular music streaming service in the world, with upwards of 70 million paid Premium subscribers, and possibly as many free listeners, but it is facing fierce competition from Apple Music in the United States. It is reported Apple Music is increasing its subscriber count by 5 percent per month compared to Spotify's 2 percent monthly growth rate, which could lead to Apple Music overtaking Spotify in terms of subscribers in the U.S by the summer.
Comments
How are they gonna market this? How are they gonna sell it? Who is going to support issues? What will they do to make me want to buy this over HomePod or Sonos? This is just stupid IMO.
However, I agree with the others here. It's very unlikely they're going to make a better speaker than a Sonos or a HomePod, and it's more likely they'll associate themselves with a crappy brand because of the poor speaker.
What they should be doing, if possible, is to with speaker companies like Sonos to better integrate their services so that you can get the equivalent of a "native" Spotify experience using a Sonos (or Google Home or Amazon Echo). Sonos in particular derives a lot of its value by being flexible, so I would expect they'd be open to this.
This is a company panicking instead of focusing on what should be more important to them, which is making their service the best it can be. They're obviously feeling the heat from Apple where as before they were dismissing that Apple was even a threat to them.
I realize that money is money, but as an engineer or designer I’d personally have a hard time looking myself in the mirror if my life’s work was based on copying the innovation and hard work of others. But I understand that in cases of personal or corporate survival, settling for mediocrity may be the best available option.
Spotify can undoubtedly hear the footsteps behind them and they know it’s not someone rushing up to pat them on the back.
i own and still use Harman Kardashian’s Soundsticks and a Bose iPhone speaker. Both cost more than the HomePod, sound just as good (I’m not an audiophile) but neither has the expandability or voice control capability that the HomePod does (will have), nor do they integrate with the Apple ecosystem.
There is no chance Apple will make a competing service native to their hardware. HomePod is all about that subscription fee.
maestro64 said: I agree. I also expect the competition for bundles like this to heat up.
"HomePod is a powerful speaker that sounds amazing and adapts to wherever it’s playing. It’s the ultimate music authority, bringing together Apple Music and Siri to learn your taste in music. It’s also an intelligent home assistant, capable of handling everyday tasks — and controlling your smart home. HomePod takes the listening experience to a whole new level. And that’s just the beginning."
That's why people keep bringing it up.
...and before you start in yes Siri on HomePod can do exactly what Apple says it can. Less careful readers could come away with the impression it can offer voice control of music other than just Apple Music since even in the footnote Apple is less than clear Siri works ONLY with Apple Music.
From the fine print: