There could be a new category for your Spotify Wrapped this year: number of new skills and concepts mastered.
What happened: Spotify has launched a pilot in the U.K. offering video learning courses to users, available both on mobile and on desktop. The classes fall into four wide-ranging buckets: “make music,” “learn business,” “healthy living,” and (vaguest of all) “get creative.”
- The classes are owned and licensed by third-party companies like Skillshare and BBC Maestro, with Spoifty taking a commission on courses sold through its platform.
Why it’s happening: Spotify’s made no bones about its desire to go beyond music to gain users and achieve stable profitability. It sees breaking into the ~US$316 billion e-learning market as the perfect next step since users already seek out education on the platform.
- The company claims that around half of its Premium subscribers have engaged with education or self-help pods (do they consider Call Her Daddy to be self-help?).
Why it matters: Like Twitter pivoting to video, LinkedIn adding games, and TikTok working on image sharing, Spotify is the latest in a long line of tech companies that have turned to ideas others have already capitalized on in an attempt to keep users glued to their platforms.
Zoom out: Spotify has already broken into other audio realms like podcasts and audiobooks but is now leaning heavily into video to diversify its offerings. In addition to its learning course pilot, it recently added music video offerings, directly challenging YouTube.
What’s next: There’s no guarantee the education platform will get past this initial test phase. If it does, though, The Verge speculated that it could be rolled into Spotify’s rumoured upcoming “Supremium” subscription tier, which will offer features like lossless audio.—QH