No, Spotify has not just officially announced a reported move into video services, but the music streaming startup is continuing to put itself into the same places where video is. Today, Spotify announced with LG that it would be integrating its premium, paid service on to a range of connected media devices from the consumer electronics giant. Devices will include Blu-ray home cinema systems, speakers and more, and they will start getting sold in April. To be clear, the LG deal will only cover music: Spotify has a catalog of some 20 million tracks that it offers across 26 countries in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand and across Europe.
As with previous smart device deals — Spotify also has an agreement with Samsung, announced in October 2012, to integrate into its smart TV content platform — the LG deal is geared towards driving more usage of Spotify’s premium service. For $9.99 per month, this lets users extend their Spotify listening from PC-only to other devices.
For Spotify, as more consumer electronics devices get linked up to the Internet, this creates an ever-expanding range of end points for its service, helping it to scale and find more paid subscribers. On the hardware makers’ part, adding in already-popular services like Spotify helps them sell the idea of premium, connected consumer electronics to consumers. As with other peripheral device deals, LG consumers will get a one-month trial free. Other hardware deals include integrations with Roku, TiVo, Sonos, Onkyo, Logitech, Western Digital, Boxee and Ford and Volvo.
Included in the in initial wave of LG devices will be the company’s high-end speaker system, the catchily-named BH9530TW, as well as its Blu-ray media players. These already feature a long lineup of premium content including games, social media services like YouTube and Facebook, Netflix, and LOVEFiLM in the UK.
Asked about the reports that surfaced yesterday around a move into video and how they might relate to today’s news, a spokesperson for Spotify declined to comment to TechCrunch. However, comments made to CNET prior to yesterday point to the company partnering with video providers before embarking on a standalone service itself, were it to move into video at all.
“I don’t know what the user experience would be where we would do that considerably better than anyone else,” Ek told the site. “If we did think we could make it better than YouTube or Vevo, then maybe. But it would seem easier to partner with them.”
With would-be competitors like Rdio also working on video (appropriately called Vdio), and providers like Apple (via iTunes) already providing both media, offering both would not be a stretch, even if for now Spotify remains firmly set on growing its platform as a place for music.
“It’s our mission to make all the world’s music available instantly to everyone, everywhere, so we’re delighted to partner with LG to make our music service available on their smart media devices,” said Kate Opekar, director of hardware business development at Spotify, in a statement. “Spotify wants to be at the heart of the home entertainment experience, so it’s a natural fit to make our music service available on Blu-ray players and home cinema systems.”