You may have shelled out for a Spotify subscription to listen to Joe Rogan’s hit podcast, before forking out a few extra bucks to access an audiobook from the platform. Now, the music streaming giant is betting that you’ll be tempted to splurge on expensive learning courses on everything from building a start-up to becoming a DJ.
Spotify has launched learning courses on its platform on a trial basis in the UK as part of its latest strategy to diversify beyond music streaming.
The courses appear to be inspired by MasterClass, where famous faces divulge industry secrets, and video-learning platforms such as EdEx, LinkedIn Learning and Udemy.
Diary of a CEO host Steven Bartlett hosts a course on how to start and grow a “multi-million dollar business.” Take That singer Gary Barlow, meanwhile, teaches a 29-lesson course on songwriting.
Both courses will set you back a whopping £48.90 ($61.81).
These sums, however, seem like a relative bargain when compared to the price of music lessons. Introductory piano and acoustic guitar courses cost £92.90 ($117.44).
The list of courses gets more and more bizarre as you go. Users can pay £35 ($44) to access a dog body language course, or pay a higher fee of £71.90 ($90.85), to teach your dog to find the antlers during the moulting season. This last course lasts just 30 minutes.
The courses work on a “freemium” model, with the first lessons of each course offered for free before users are asked to fork out to receive the rest.
It’s unclear how Spotify has structured payments for these courses, for example, whether they are using a revenue-sharing model with creators or whether they have paid specific high-profile creators an upfront sum to create content.
Spotify’s latest money-making plan
The move to video courses is the latest sign Spotify is diversifying its offerings beyond the low-margin music streaming business, where the platform pays record labels exponential sums for music licensing.
Spotify first tried to diversify into podcasting, paying large sums for high-value exclusives from Joe Rogan, Barack and Michelle Obama, and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
However, the group experienced significant teething troubles in that division and has since disbanded its expensive stars while reigning in its exclusivity deal with Rogan.
Spotify claims this was part of a strategy to attract listeners it hadn’t before to the platform, rather than being the most profitable model, and CEO Daniel Ek expects the podcast division to turn a profit this year.
The company has also turned to audiobooks, offering a similar freemium model where several audiobooks come free along with a premium subscription, while others require a payment.
Spotify believes the number of its users engaging with learning-focused podcasts and audiobooks means the market is ripe for growth.
“Many of our users use podcasts and audiobooks daily for their learning needs, and we believe this highly engaged community will be interested in accessing and purchasing quality content from video course creators,” said Babar Zafar, vice president of product development at Spotify .
Woe to the apple
The music streamer has historically faced problems marketing these paid add-on features on its app, thanks to Apple’s fees that have turned into a years-long regulatory battle.
Spotify has avoided giving users the ability to pay for subscriptions and make in-app purchases on its iOS app, to avoid paying Apple a 30% commission on those purchases. Instead, customers had to redirect to a web browser at the streaming platform’s behest.
This is expected to change in the EU following the launch of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), where Spotify plans to reconfigure its app to more easily market additional features to users.
Daniel Ek said there was a “significant benefit” to the group from an increased ability to sell its features directly to customers via the app.