Spotify branches to Edtech, launches a platform to teach

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Spotify started its podcast, a product that has gained massive adoption while even signing exclusive podcast deals with some creators.

Going forward, the giant streaming platform ventures into videos, creating a teasing test of video courses that will teach creators and users a lot of things—from music-making to tech-enabled teachings. The categories are enormous.

To do this, Spotify had to partner with edtech startups to bring these courses and videos to life. Startups like BBC Maestro, PLAYvirtuoso, Skillshare, and Thinkific. According to Spotify, the companies will help "bring video content directly to Spotify users."

This project is open to users in the UK and they will also be able to purchase these courses with music, podcasts, and audiobooks. During the test, UK-free and Premium users will be able to try at least two lessons per course free of charge before buying more lessons.

"Testing video courses in the U.K. allows us to explore an exciting opportunity to better serve the needs of our users who have an active interest in learning," said Babar Zafar, VP of Product Development at Spotify in the announcement. "Many of our users engage with podcasts and audiobooks on a daily basis for their learning needs, and we believe this highly engaged community will be interested in accessing and purchasing quality content from video course creators. At Spotify, we’re constantly striving to create new offerings for our creators and users, and having built best-in-class personalized music and podcast offerings, we look forward to exploring the potential of video-based learning on Spotify."

It can be seen that Spotify has been investing heavily in video content as recently, they announced having their music catalog which is also in beta.

Will Spotify survive?

There are a lot of edtech startups, how does Spotify plan to compete and win in this competitive market, or could their target audience being creators be a unique selling point? They do have data, and know the type of content most of their subscribers listen to, we can assume this is one of the reasons they have branched into edtech.

To access this test course as a UK resident:

1. Open the Spotify mobile app and head over to the home or browse and find educational videos there.

2. Click through to find available courses (currently in four categories). You can purchase the courses on desktop, and after you do, they'll appear on your mobile.

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