I just got word that Spotify and Yahoo are entering a unique partnership starting today that will allow Yahoo to distribute Spotify content through the Yahoo Media Network which boasts 700 million monthly users and additionally promote the Spotify service across Yahoo sites in return for revenue sharing.
Spotify will initially roll out to Yahoo! Music and later will be contextually integrated globally across the rest of Yahoo!, including its leading entertainment sites, like Yahoo! Movies and omg!. In turn, Yahoo! will create an app for Spotify’s platform featuring Yahoo! original entertainment content, which will reach Spotify’s more than 10 million active users.
“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” said Daniel Ek, CEO & Founder, Spotify. “We are really excited about the new Yahoo! leadership team and thrilled to partner with them to build great experiences around high quality content.”
“Delivering compelling premium experiences across screens is core to our mission at Yahoo!. Spotify is the leader in the digital music field and together we can provide the “soundtrack” for users around the world,” said Ross Levinsohn, Interim CEO, Yahoo!. “What Daniel and his team are doing is changing an industry, and we’re thrilled to be partnering with them.”
It is unclear what kind of figures are involved in the deal but this could potentially be a new cash flow for Yahoo which as of lately has been taking major financial hits and while at the same time losing popularity as competitors Facebook and Google continue to dominate worldwide web traffic.
Since Spotify is partnered with Facebook which is in hot competition with Google+ it seems obvious that there was a limitation in place preventing Spotify from partnering with Google which left few small properties such as Yahoo to partner with.
