Spotify music service plays at Yahoo!
Yahoo! on Tuesday announced that it will be integrating Spotify internet radio service into its websites as part of a quest to reinvent itself as an online stage for digital content.
Spotify will be added first to Yahoo! Music and eventually be woven into the California firm's other online entertainment venues such as Movies and omg!.
The alliance will include adding an application to the Spotify platform to provide Yahoo! editorial content to the more than 10 million users of the London-based on-demand music service.
"At Spotify we want to light up the Web with music and as Yahoo!'s global music partner we're able to reach their massive audience," Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek said in a release.
Yahoo! has nearly 700 million monthly users which represents more than 47 percent of the world's Internet audience, according to May figures from industry tracker comScore.
Spotify earlier this month added a free radio service for iPhone or iPad users in the United States in a direct assault on locally loved Pandora.
Internet music darling Spotify has been trying to win fans away from Pandora, a popular service based in the California city of Oakland across the bay from San Francisco. Pandora reports having about 150 million users.
Yahoo! has struggled to find new relevance after the pioneering Internet search firm was eclipsed by Google.
"Delivering compelling premium experiences across screens is core to our mission at Yahoo!," said interim Yahoo! chief executive Ross Levinsohn.
"What Daniel and his team are doing is changing an industry, and we're thrilled to be partnering with them."
The relationship is designed "to drive deeper user engagement" for Spotify and Yahoo!, according to the companies.
(c) 2012 AFP
