Spotify and Tencent Music Entertainment Group announced that they will acquire minority stakes in each other. Tencent Holdings, which owns a majority stake of Tencent Music Entertainment, is also making a separate investment in Spotify and will own a minority stake. This development hit the rumor mill last week. Continue Reading
Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlist was one of the streaming service’s first forays into personalized music recommendations. Since its debut in 2015, the setup has changed little: every Monday, the platform presents 30 songs chosen based on each person’s listening habits. Now, Spotify is testing a more hands-on feature for listeners, with an option to mark songs in Discover Weekly that you like or dislike. Continue Reading
Spotify is reportedly in talks with China’s Tencent Holdings about a potential swap of stakes in advance of both companies’ planned public listings. The possible development first appeared in the Wall Street Journal (paywall), which reported that the two businesses trade stakes of up to 10%. Continue Reading
Last year, Spotify tapped into its data troves for a clever marketing campaign. This year, it’s back in action, all themed around resolutions for 2018. The push is dubbed “2018 Goals,” and it again highlights some of the unusual factoids and data points from Spotify listeners. The campaign was developed and executed in-house and covers 18 markets. Continue Reading
Spotify is getting into the festive spirit with a playlist of some exclusive holiday songs. The tracks are all from sessions of Spotify Singles, where performers record a few songs in the streaming service’s studios. Now, Spotify has a collection of these exclusive songs highlighted in the Holiday section. Continue Reading
Spotify for Artists has made a few new additions to the Artist’s Pick feature. This section, which debuted last year, allows a performer to select music to highlight at the top of their Spotify profile with accompanying text. Continue Reading
Spotify has announced plans to move into a new office in London. Not only will the streaming company’s square footage be growing in the UK capital, but so will its workforce. Bloomberg reported that Spotify expects to double its London team over the next two years. Continue Reading
Spotify has acquired Soundtrap, an online music studio that lets people collaborate on music creation in real time. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Soundtrap’s service will continue to be available. Continue Reading
Spotify has hired a new managing director for the region of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Michael Krause was most recently at Deezer, spending a year as CEO of EMEA for the music company. Continue Reading
Spotify has shared a report investigating the range of music its members listen to on the streaming service. Using its own internal data, the company said that Spotify listeners are hearing 37% more artists than they were in 2014. That’s an increase from nearly 30 artists streamed per week to about 41 artists streamed per week. Continue Reading
Spotify has hired a new leader for its public relations team. Dustee Jenkins will be the streaming service’s top communications official, joining Spotify from the same role at retailer Target. Continue Reading
Sonos is adding support for playing Spotify via Alexa voice commands on its speakers beginning December 21. The news came from a support forum post. Neither its current speakers with an Echo Dot nor the new Sonos One are able to use voice controls to play music from Spotify. Continue Reading