Spotify Will Add Streaming Video and Compete with Netflix, HBO

It's with that future in mind that you should be excited about the Spotify news today. From Business Insider:

Spotify, the on-demand music service, is planning a major change.

According to two sources briefed on the company's plans, Spotify intends to become an on-demand music and video service – one that would invest in original content and compete heads-on with Netflix.

Ultimately, Spotify's metamorphosis would also put it into competition with content creators and providers such as HBO.

Our sources said that Spotify is looking for partners that can help it fund and create exclusive content. It is unclear if these talks would lead to a new round of investment in Spotify itself.

Spotify is already worth billions of dollars on paper thanks to several huge rounds of investment – the last of which we started hearing about this time last year and later closed in the fall. The $100 million investment from Coca-Cola and Goldman Sachs valued Spotify at $3 billion.

 

A lot of Tweeters are trashing the Spotify move. Which makes sense, because any time you have a company branch out from its core service, it—obviously—opens itself up for failure. But if you dug “House of Cards,” you should hope Spotify pulls this transition off. Because if Spotify, Netflix, and Amazon are successful in releasing premium TV, the quality of the medium will only rise.