On Wednesday, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek and company took to a New York City stage to announce several new feature additions to Spotify.
The company led with Spotify Now, a music concierge-like service that will suggest different playlists for different moods and times of day. Essentially, this feature will bring Spotify closer to competitor Songza, which was acquired by Google last summer. According to the company, playlists recommendations are based upon a person’s listening history and suggestions gleamed from a group of music experts that work for Spotify.
The company also announced Spotify Running, a new feature within its iPhone app that gauges the pace at which a person is running and then speeds up or slow down the music they’re listening to in order to match the two disparate tempos. Spotify has partnered with Nike to bring this feature to the company’s Nike+ platform, and Spotify Running will also be integrated with RunKeeper later this year.
More importantly, Spotify isn’t just about music anymore. During its event, the company announced that users can now listen to podcasts and watch videos on the service. Major brands like BBC, ESPN, Vice, Fusion, Comedy Central and TED will make some of their content available on Spotify.
The company has started producing its own content, as well. At launch, there are only six exclusive songs for Spotify Running, but the amount and breadth of content will increase in the coming months. For instance, Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls brand will produce a Dance Moves of the Day video series, and curated radio stations are coming from artists like Tyler the Creator and Icona Pop.
Canadians will have to wait until later this year to try out Spotify Now, as this feature is currently only available to those in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Sweden. However, for the runners out there, Spotify Running is available now to those that use the service on their iPhone.
All told, it’s been a busy week for Spotify. On Monday, the company announced that it had partnered with Starbucks to stream music to all of its locations in the United States and Canada. With Apple’s own music streaming service reportedly launching in June, the company likely felt it needed to differentiate itself from competitors both new and old. After all, the music streaming market has become a lot more competitive since the days when Spotify was one of the only acts in town.
[source]Spotify[/source]
