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Spotify offers Premium for Family subscribers a "gift" and an easy win for Google.
Last month, Spotify scared off a substantial portion of its Premium for Family to sign up for an individual account. As losses increase and Apple Music wins more subscribers in key markets, executives have implemented a controversial plan.
By doubling the functionality of the plan, Spotify sent an email to users of the family plan with an email asking them to verify their address. If they do not, they could lose access to Premium for Family.
Users did not react too nicely to the Spotify threat. Thus, after receiving a significant backlash on social networks, the company has quietly described this feature as "test".
However, the "test" feature seems to have worked. Frightened users easily turned to individual premium subscriptions, leaving behind their discounted family plans.
Now, with its stocks hitting record lows and a day before the company unveils its dreaded report for the third quarter of 2018, executives have a new plan.
How to inflate your subscriber numbers with a carrot instead of a stick, by Spotify.
In anticipation of the important holiday season 2018, leaders have found ways to quickly increase the total number of subscribers of the company.
Announcing a key partnership with Amazon, Spotify will offer a Google Home Mini Smart Speaker. The gift begins on November 1stst and ends on December 31st. Premium and new and existing subscribers can sign up to receive their free smart speaker.
Breaking the company's family plan for the holiday season, said Alex Norström, Spotify Premium Sales Manager,
"We're excited to partner with Google Home to bring the magic of voice to our Spotify Premium Family subscribers. After all, what's more fun than sharing the music you love with the people you love. For Family Plan subscribers, enjoying these moments will only improve. Now, whenever their favorite artists show up, they can just say, "Hey Google, get it started!""
The move makes sense for both companies – sort of.
Spotify needs a way to cope with the rapid growth of Apple in the global market of smart speakers. As it has not unveiled its own smart speaker, the company needs a way to expand its subscriber base in the United States.
With a considerable anchor in the global market of smart speakers, Google hopes to continue to steal more users from Amazon. Users can also play songs from YouTube Music and Google Play Music on their smart speaker (and Google will definitely attract them later). But for the moment, both services are significantly behind Spotify (although this may change in the future).
In the long run, Google is gaining a boost in its smart speaker business. For Spotify, this reduces the ability to match subscribers to its own hardware solution, if it is actually part of the strategic roadmap. The major hardware gap in Spotify's business model only grows with this gift, assuming it would even be possible for the streaming service to be competitive in this area.
But hey: no one said that convenience marriages were perfect.
Image selected by Spotify.
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