Spotify’s ‘Launch In To Video’… Isn’t; It’s Just More Free-Paid Push-Pull

Jimi Hendrix video on Spotify

After months of offering advance releases, exclusives and competition prizes as inducements to premium subscribers, Spotify is now doing the opposite. Sort of.

The music service is making a song and dance about an “exclusive” new Jimi Hendrix video – it’s first ever video foray – that’s only available to its free users.

Spotify announced its pleasure at bagging a “world exclusive” on the video – but Twitter filled up with depressed onlookers, perceiving Spotify has launched a new video service, scratching their heads that they couldn’t see it.

But Tweeters, chillax – the video, which appears on the Home page for free Spotify users, is a one-off paid ad placement by Sony (NYSE: SNE) Music for the forthcoming new Hendrix album, Valleys Of Neptune – and paying customers don’t see ads.

What’s more, premium customers will get an exclusive five-day window on the album when it drops on March 4. In this sense, the free video drives sign-ups to the paid service.

Just as Last.fm now has animated ad spots, a video is a perfectly acceptable ad format for Spotify to try as it looks for as many income sources as possible, and as it tries to juice various configurations of free-paid synergy.

In a backward way, the grumbles may be an encouraging sign – everyone complaining they are blocked out is actually a premium subscriber. It riled a small number of paying customers nonetheless…

The takeaway – one man’s promo is another’s exclusive piece of content.

Nor does the Hendrix vid signal a full-scale expansion in to music video. Spotify isn’t ruling a future video upgrade in or out at this point – it knows it’s far too young a company to be committing to taking on the likes of Vevo for that segment at this early stage.

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