Spotify drops their original TV shows, but signal big video reboot
After a couple years of dipping their toes in the water of video, music streamers Spotify are reportedly dropping their shows – but this isn’t the end of Spotify shows.
Spotify are cancelling their original shows and rebooting their video content once again, according to sources talking to Bloomberg. After multiple attempts to make video content a thing on Spotify, to varying degrees of success, it looks like they’re going to reboot shows on Spotify for the 2nd time – and hopefully this time get it right.
Previous attempts have included a Shows section for third-party content like shows from Adult Swim, chat show clips, news stories, and so on. After realising no-one wanted to watch something on Spotify that they could easily watch elsewhere, especially since it was a mobile & tablet exclusive feature, Spotify delved into original shows.
Bloomberg’s information comes from “people with knowledge of the matter” who say that Spotify are cancelling their original video series in general as well as ones still in production. They also claim that Courtney Holt, their newly appointed head of video chosen to take Spotify’s video in a new direction, is exploring a new format that would be special to Spotify.
Previous video heads have failed to bring video on Spotify to any real fruition after Matt Baxter licensed video content from Walt Disney Co., Viacom Inc. and Vice Media Inc. Baxter’s efforts saw little activity, so Tom Calderone stepped in as head of video and took about creating original created shows for Spotify. Whilst they were well made, good ideas on interesting subjects a lack of advertising or prevalence in their service left them mostly ignored. Spotify hope Holt can connect the dots and create a unique and engaging video experience on the world’s favourite music streaming service.
Holt is reportedly in the process of pitching a service called Spotlight that would synergise video, music, and images to create a captivating hub for all of the top content on Spotify. The sources say that this is nowhere near concrete as Spotify would have to redesign their app, spreading the effort amongst multiple departments. Despite their relentless attempts to make it work it’s still unclear as to how much Spotify is willing to push video.
As Spotify continue to struggle making a profit despite their success, video could be their route to financial security. Especially as Spotify are still yet to fulfill their plans of going public, and need to assure that there company has enough value to fulfil a successful IPO.