Spotify & Coca-Cola Partner To Offer “Universal Access To Music”
Spotify and Coca-Cola today announced a partnership that both say will "provide consumers universal access to music". Under the deal, Spotify will provide the technology for Coca-Cola Music globally, including a player on the brand's Facebook Pages providing music for Coke's 40 million Facebook fans.
Coca-Cola will also leverage the Spotify API and through apps – the first of which was built by independent developers during a two-day Spotify/Coca-Cola “hacker den” held in New York City last week. "Spotify had 6 hack teams compete over the weekend to bring new tech to the partnership," according to David Chaitt who attended today's event for Hypebot. The new app will be unveiled for the 2012 Olympics in London.
Coca-Cola will also partner with Spotify as it launches its music service in new markets in 2012 and into 2013.
"At Coca-Cola we have long recognized the power of music to connect people around the world,” said Joe Belliotti, Director, Global Entertainment Marketing, The Coca-Cola Company. “As we step up our activation through Coca-Cola Music, we are excited by the innovative music technology platform created by Spotify and the opportunity to create a truly global music network.”
Music Is Now Like Water… Or Should I Say Coke? Stay tuned for analysis from David Chaitt.
Someone should have told Coke that free music is no longer a value proposition that will resonate with the majority of music fans.
Bruce, is that because free music is ubiquitous?
Free MP3s from known, major labels artists, yes. But switching to a free Coke-branded (ad-driven?) streaming service (from a website?) to save a few coins, and leaving your music collection/habits (and Spotify or iTunes) behind…doubtful. Perhaps the bar is low? Would 2,000,000 users be a success for Coke? Not sure what creating a “truly global music network” means? Coke needs to prove to consumers that the curation effort (by fans) won’t go up in smoke when they ditch the service three years from now…
I just bought Black Sabbath’s Paranoid on gatefold vinyl. Will the Coke/Spotify be able to offer me that music experience? No? Then I really don’t give a shit.
Who gives a shit about Coke? Pepsi is where it’s at!
Free album download at http://www.facebook.com/chancius
Not a surprising move by Spotify. Not sure, what the true value proposition is here.
Two things worry me from Coke’s point of view:-
1) The Spotify business model remains unproven. Increased losses have been reported this year and all those investors have not had a reasonable return on their investment, if any to date. How long can Spotify last as an unsustainable business model?
2) The internet is changing as new technology emerges, where there will be trusted, secure delivery of digital assets (inc music, movies etc) with a full audit trail. Piracy will be gone, new types of revenue models, consumer experiences and business collaborations will emerge. At this stage, and a trial has recently been successfully completed, ALL music will be located on this new internet in a new “layer” or “internet OS”. This means that ANY business, such as Coke, will be able to directly build music based experiences for their consumers. When this happens, new “Spotify” type of businesses will emerge, leaving Spotify as “one in the mix”, with little USP, other then an initial member base. This is a global play with partners that put their technology right at the heart of the internet. It will be a revolution for businesses in the digital value chain, but most importantly the next generation of experiences for the consumer.
However, I wish Coke and Spotify success, but do keep an eye on the changing and innovative landscape!
Matthew
@pioneerDigital