Music streaming giant Spotify is reportedly looking to move into streaming video content, closing in on a market dominated by video platforms like YouTube and Facebook.
As reported by The Wall Street Journal, Spotify has reportedly been in talks with a number of YouTube affiliated media companies, as well as television networks, online video producers and magazine publishers, about bringing short videos to the streaming platform as soon as this month.
The company is said to be discussing both the acquisition of existing video content as well as the production of original videos. It is believed a Spotify video service would mirror its music service by offering both free and paid subscription tiers.
The move would see Spotify occupy a whole new turf in the streaming world, but the proposed service is unlikely to include any video content by Taylor Swift.
As The Verge point out, Spotify’s rival music service Tidal already includes access to music videos as part of its subscription service – but Jay Z’s streaming platform has a whole bunch of other problems right now.
Spotify claims to have 15 million subscribers and 60 million active users, and according to The Wall Street Journal is seeking to raise more than US$400 million from investors in a round of funding that would value the company at more than US$8.4 billion. Still, it’s yet to turn a profit.
The news comes around the same time as reports that YouTube might be making a moving towards offering subscription services for ad-free video streaming and as Apple is expected to unveil its Beats Music relaunch.
Spotify has reportedly sent out invites for a May 20th press event.
