The music streaming company Spotify is entering the Web-video business that has been dominated by YouTube and Facebook. Why? As Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek explained at a recent media event in New York City, “Music is moving away from genres,” he said. “People don’t search for Hip Hop or Country anymore, but rather they search around activities or a particular experience.”
Spotify has the audience that partners want to reach — and it knows a lot about its audience. Using all the data Spotify has about its customers, it can promise partners it’ll deliver their content to its customer base right in the sweet spot — exactly when the user is mostly likely to want it. Essentially, Spotify knows that a user named Samantha in Denver takes a break and listens to light stuff everyday at around 3:30pm. Comedy Central wants Samantha’s attention then. Based on the data that you provide including age and location, what music you’ve been listening to, and at what time during the day, Spotify will put together video playlists for you, too. New content partners include NBC, Slate, Vice, BBC, ABC, Comedy Central, among others.
