Spotify is venturing beyond music and podcasts! The streaming giant is launching an experiment in the UK, offering video-based online courses in partnership with BBC Maestro, Skillshare, Thinkific, and PlayVirtuoso. Courses currently span four categories: music creation, creativity, business, and healthy living.
Spotify sees this as a natural extension of their platform. With educational podcasts already popular, offering in-depth video courses aligns with the growing interest in self-learning. Spotify’s advantage? Their ability to target courses to users based on their listening habits.
Courses appear within Spotify’s mobile and desktop apps, accessible via a new tab and through search. Users can sample at least two video lessons from each course for free, but full access requires a paid subscription. Notably, due to Apple and Google’s app store rules, purchases must be made outside the app.
Spotify is taking a commission on course sales, though the exact percentage remains undisclosed. Moderation will adhere to Spotify’s existing content policies, with additional reporting options for concerning content.
While this is currently a UK-only experiment, it’s intriguing to consider how online courses could factor into Spotify’s rumored “Supremium” subscription tier. Global rollout is still unclear.
