Music streaming services have blown up in recent years, and now the competition to get in your ear has never been higher. Whether it’s Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal or Prime Music, companies are continuously are emerging and competing.

When it comes to the number of monthly subscribers, Spotify leads the way. The service has tens of millions more paid users than any other competing service, in addition to at least 1 million more free users. But with Apple Music’s exclusive releases and use of video, Spotify may be getting a run for its money. Apple Music as gained half the number of Spotify’s paying users since its creation in 2015 — nine years after Spotify came about.

To drive its service ahead, Spotify is attempting to utilize video to compete with Apple Music. It has been adding video clips to its widely popular playlist RapCaviar to test this strategy, which has so far helped the playlist earn a whopping 7 million followers and start its own six-city concert series. Spotify is also partnering with Hulu to help appeal to fans who are huge video consumers.

This is all part of Spotify’s attempt to counteract Apple Music’s approach to video, which includes artist documentaries and celebrity shows such as “Carpool Karaoke” and “Planet of the Apps.”

Courtney Holt, head of Spotify’s original video and podcast programming, will use the RapCaviar video model on other playlists to curate videos like music.

Professionals at the music giant have tried to incorporate video in the past with licensed short-form videos from Comedy Central and BBC, but these videos weren’t successful due to several issues, such as video positioning.

Since 2015, these video attempts haven’t proved to be truly successful. Several original content partners spoke about Spotify coming close to starting a show only for the deal to never actually happen. Multiple content companies reported they would be on the verge of finalizing a deal for an original show, only for Spotify to stall until the last second. This is over and above Spotify flopping with its original series, which was hard for users to find even inside the app.

This is where Holt comes in. Her goal is to figure out a video strategy that actually works for Spotify in this visually consuming world. She has background experience at Disney, Atlantic Records, MTV and Myspace music, so she seems to be in a good place.

At the end of the day, our world, whether we like it or not, is driven by video and visuals more than ever. The only way for Spotify to remain on top is to incorporate video for its subscribers. If it fails to do this, like it has in the past, it may not remain the most popular streaming service for much longer.

Music listeners take choosing which streaming service they use very seriously. Hopefully Spotify will figure out how to maximize its video potential, because personally, switching over to any other service will take a lot of effort on my — and other listeners’ — ends.

Phoebe Smith is a senior public relations major. Her column appears biweekly in Pulp. You can email her at phsmith@syr.edu or follow her on Twitter @phoebesmithh5.

Published on September 19, 2017 at 11:18 pm