In a hall in Los Angeles, some of the world’s most famous talkers are gathered. But now, they’re here to listen. From Made in Chelsea’s Jamie Laing and Sophie Habboo – hosts of the podcast NewlyWeds – to wellness influencers such as Rich Roll and Steven Bartlett, all are being pitched on a vision of the future.
That vision is video. Spotify is not the first major tech company to argue that video is the future for it and the world, and it is not even Spotify’s first foray into the format. But the company says this time is different.
This time, it means taking on YouTube; spending an awful lot more money; gathering some of the world’s most famous podcasters and other creators. And it might mean changing what Spotify actually is.
For years after its founding in 2006, Spotify was known for music. If it was known for anything else, it was disrupting the music industry: after years of losses from piracy, record labels finally found a new way of making songs pay. But for the most part, that payment came from Spotify which, for almost all of its history, was losing money and as a result was viewed with pity.
Then, in the last few years, both things started to change. In 2015, it added podcasts but the new strategy didn’t really hit the headlines until 2020, when it signed an exclusive deal with Joe Rogan that prompted so much outrage that some of the world’s biggest musical artists left. Quietly, it added video to those podcasts, then added audiobooks too. Now it wants to take on YouTube as a rival home for videos.
At the same time, Spotify started to do something else: rapidly make lots of money. This week, it reported results showing it had an operating profit of €454m (£378m) in the last quarter, compared with €32m in the same period last year.
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Ambitious Everton look for upgrade on the Dyche grind
Sean Dyche was never the manager Everton really wanted.
Everton ease to FA Cup win as team reboot starts
They are not used to cheering the men in the technical area.
THE ART OF NOISE
Alt-popper Ethel Cain lashes listeners with sound on her experimental second LP, 'Perverts'. Helen Brown submits
Kidman is utterly fearless in unabashedly sexy 'Babygirl'
Dutch writer-director Halina Reijn has made a BDSM film rife with fumbling uncertainty, and comedy-drama 'A Real Pain' manages to stay honest,
The secret shame that saw Callas retreat into obscurity
She was the opera diva with a tumultuous and tragic private life but something else would derail her career as one of the greatest singers of all time, as Meghan Lloyd Davies explains
At home with Gen Zzzzz
Being boring has never been more in - but Kate Rossiensky wonders if the humblebore lifestyle is a deflection technique
PLAYING DUMB
As the thoroughly decent (and rather smart) Kasim is ejected from 'The Traitors', Helen Coffey asks whether intelligence has become a hindrance that should be concealed at all costs
The woman who cried wolf and fuelled a local race war
When Ellie Williams told of her experience at the hands of a grooming gang, it seemed clear what was right vs wrong. But the truth, writes Zoë Beaty, was much more complicated...
Biden hails 'strength of character' in Carter tribute
Every living American president filed into pews at the Washington National Cathedral yesterday to honour one of their own at the funeral for Jimmy Carter, who died late last month at 100 years old.
Wake up and smell the fires
We live in a 'magic bubble' of denial but the LA infernos and Covid before it demonstrate why we must be better prepared
