As they explain in the book,
Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2025 8:34 am
Swedish journalists Jonas Leijonhufvud and Sven Carlsson published their book Spotify Unfold last May . At first, this work, which recounts the ins and outs of much of the birth and development of the streaming music platform, went unnoticed. However, the manuscript reveals some really interesting details about Spotify .
Apparently, the Swedish online music streaming platform wanted to jump on the streaming television bandwagon back in 2011. Thus, taking advantage of the constant and rapid transformation of the television and audiovisual business model, it began a project to implement a video platform following its own musical format.
His dream, in short, was to improve the Netflix of the time , which was barely functioning at that time as a content generator. His ambition, in turn, was to compete directly with Hulu and Apple TV . However, as the book tells us, the Swedish giant's enthusiasm disappeared after a few months of work, until it ended up discarding the idea. The main reason, the continuous and costly complications that arose.
Spotify-Netflix
The book, for its part, goes over the history of the company in general. It reviews in detail its successes and failures , from its beginnings in 2006 to the present day, with the help of these reporters specialized in technology from the media Di Digital . Among other anecdotes and stories, the Swedish authors narrate how the founder of the company sought to ally himself with Facebook upon his arrival in the US, or the various attempts to buy Google and Microsoft . However, the most striking story is this television adventure.
To begin with, they reveal that the project was named after a Marvel character, Magneto . According to them, it did not come to fruition because of Daniel Ek 's reluctance to risk everything he had achieved for a project with an uncertain future. The creator of Spotify had serious doubts about the viability of an initiative that took the company on a journey into a world, that of television, unknown to them. The authors, in fact, point out that " content licenses turned out to be very expensive , in particular sports broadcasting rights."
They add that “Daniel is a big Arsenal fan and wanted Spotify TV to offer live football, like the Premier League . But they couldn’t get a good enough deal to launch commercially.” “Daniel wanted Spotify to approach TV the same way it had done with music, he wanted to build a technologically superior platform first , and then sort out the rights issues second,” Leijonhufvud says.
Spotify-Netflix Spotify had made it big in the music austria phone number world because it offered technology that was extremely attractive to the music industry . In this way, they managed to convince the industry giants to cede their properties to this service, even though it was initially completely free. Over time, advertising and premium paid services ended up paying for that investment. “It took Ek a long time to understand how the television industry worked; how, even if you are a distributor, you still have to pay a lot of money for the content,” the writers say.
The journalist couple also relates that Ek decided to create a team of 70 people for the development of the project, which lasted for years and cost millions of dollars . In relation to this, Carlsson says that "the rights turned out to be very expensive and the idea was to offer normal television programming, such as news or sports. They ended up realizing that having an attractive offer would require more money than the company was worth at that time, in 2014. "
The price of the future service was also another obstacle that hindered the project. "Either they would have to dilute the content to keep it cheap or offer something that would not be able to compete in terms of price with Netflix, for example," the journalist adds.
Spotify-Netflix.
Apparently, the Swedish online music streaming platform wanted to jump on the streaming television bandwagon back in 2011. Thus, taking advantage of the constant and rapid transformation of the television and audiovisual business model, it began a project to implement a video platform following its own musical format.
His dream, in short, was to improve the Netflix of the time , which was barely functioning at that time as a content generator. His ambition, in turn, was to compete directly with Hulu and Apple TV . However, as the book tells us, the Swedish giant's enthusiasm disappeared after a few months of work, until it ended up discarding the idea. The main reason, the continuous and costly complications that arose.
Spotify-Netflix
The book, for its part, goes over the history of the company in general. It reviews in detail its successes and failures , from its beginnings in 2006 to the present day, with the help of these reporters specialized in technology from the media Di Digital . Among other anecdotes and stories, the Swedish authors narrate how the founder of the company sought to ally himself with Facebook upon his arrival in the US, or the various attempts to buy Google and Microsoft . However, the most striking story is this television adventure.
To begin with, they reveal that the project was named after a Marvel character, Magneto . According to them, it did not come to fruition because of Daniel Ek 's reluctance to risk everything he had achieved for a project with an uncertain future. The creator of Spotify had serious doubts about the viability of an initiative that took the company on a journey into a world, that of television, unknown to them. The authors, in fact, point out that " content licenses turned out to be very expensive , in particular sports broadcasting rights."
They add that “Daniel is a big Arsenal fan and wanted Spotify TV to offer live football, like the Premier League . But they couldn’t get a good enough deal to launch commercially.” “Daniel wanted Spotify to approach TV the same way it had done with music, he wanted to build a technologically superior platform first , and then sort out the rights issues second,” Leijonhufvud says.
Spotify-Netflix Spotify had made it big in the music austria phone number world because it offered technology that was extremely attractive to the music industry . In this way, they managed to convince the industry giants to cede their properties to this service, even though it was initially completely free. Over time, advertising and premium paid services ended up paying for that investment. “It took Ek a long time to understand how the television industry worked; how, even if you are a distributor, you still have to pay a lot of money for the content,” the writers say.
The journalist couple also relates that Ek decided to create a team of 70 people for the development of the project, which lasted for years and cost millions of dollars . In relation to this, Carlsson says that "the rights turned out to be very expensive and the idea was to offer normal television programming, such as news or sports. They ended up realizing that having an attractive offer would require more money than the company was worth at that time, in 2014. "
The price of the future service was also another obstacle that hindered the project. "Either they would have to dilute the content to keep it cheap or offer something that would not be able to compete in terms of price with Netflix, for example," the journalist adds.
Spotify-Netflix.