Take That, Tidal: Spotify Has Stepped Up Its Ammo In The Ongoing Streaming Wars

Spotify is no longer just about music. The latest version launched today for iPhone users in the United States, U.K., Germany and Sweden, and it now incorporates podcasts, videos, news clips, and fitness. It also tailors playlists for listeners. According to the company’s website, its “Now” start page features music selected from “in-house” experts and users’ personal collections for different occasions. Its song recommendations will “adapt over time to fit listeners’ tastes and moods.”

Spotify also announced that it will partner with Nike and RunKeeper to integrate fitness apps.  One of its new features, Spotify Running, uses “recommendations based on your listening history, multiple-genre playlists and original running compositions” and will detect the runner’s tempo and match music in time with his or her steps.

The revamp of the app isn’t completely random, as it must compete with other streaming services, including Jay Z’s Tidal, which shows exclusive music videos and live concerts, and Apple, which is expected to unveil a new streaming service this summer. It’s also noteworthy that advertising revenue from video streaming is much higher than music streaming.

Mashable also notes that:

The new content all appears to funnel into a new feature that resembles Google’s Songza, which plays music and other content that matches what a person is doing during the day. The addition of video is the biggest change to Spotify’s core mission in years.

The ambitious new version is user-friendly and all-encompassing, so now all we need is for Taylor Swift to come back to Spotify, and then it can dominate our lives.

(Via Mashable)

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