Spotify is committed to bringing audio content such as music and stories to more people in more ways–including the next generation of listeners. That’s why we decided to launch a fun standalone app designed with safety in mind specifically for kids and families.*
Introducing Encore. Encore is the family of design systems that has everything teams need to build beautiful, scalable Spotify apps. What’s different about Encore is that it isn’t a single monolithic thing. It’s a framework that brings Spotify’s existing design systems under one brand—a “system of systems.”. Spotify has given its Spotify for Artists a makeover on iOS and Android devices with a refreshed design, new 'Home' tab and expanded-real time statistics for current listeners. Master Spotify with these tips. Photothek via Getty Images The recently updated Spotify Premium boasts a streamlined design with only three buttons at the bottom of the app for navigating its wares.
We sat down with Alex Norström, Spotify’s Chief Premium Business Officer, to learn a little more about the app.
1. Why create a Spotify Kids app now? What can users look forward to?
We know that families love listening together—whether it’s while driving in the car or cooking dinner together in the kitchen. But we also know that family members love to listen on their own too. That’s why we’re so excited to welcome the next generation of listeners—kids—into the Family Plan experience.
![Spotify website design Spotify website design](/uploads/1/3/4/1/134138430/382740255.gif)
Kids consuming audio content, such as music and stories, isn’t a new phenomenon—in fact, they love it. But most audio experiences were built with adults in mind—meaning they’re not simple, easy, or fun for young kids to use.
Spotify Kids was born out of the desire to create a playground of sound just for kids—to build a place where younger kids can explore their favorite music and stories in a fun environment. The content is ad-free and hand-picked by a team of editors, and the experience is bursting with color. Our visuals help guide young minds through the app with simple navigation and scaled-back text. Before setting out to explore, each kid can also select a custom avatar and color theme to personalize their experience.
Spotify Kids is a composite of playlists, which makes it easy for kids to find music and stories from their favorite movies and TV shows or hit plays on a playlist to sing along to during their favorite activity—or their least favorite chore.
We’re thrilled to beta launch in Ireland and look forward to introducing Spotify Kids in all markets that have Premium Family in the coming months. As we evolve the app experience, we’ll roll out enhanced parental settings and controls for even more customization in an effort to give parents peace of mind.
2. How is the Spotify Kids app different from the original app? Any unique content?
Spotify Kids is a standalone app available exclusively for Premium Family subscribers and intended for kids ages 3+. The content within Kids is hand-picked by a team of editors, who have nearly 100 years of combined experience curating content for kids. They come from some of the most well-respected brands in this space, including Nickelodeon, Disney, Discovery Kids, and Universal Pictures, as well as Public Service in Sweden and BookBeat, which is a family- and kids-oriented audio streaming service. Spotify premium apk mod 2018 android.
Beyond the content, the entire Spotify Kids user experience looks and feels different from the Spotify app. And that’s intentional. It’s built for kids, with their specific cognitive skills in mind, and exudes a fun, familiar, playful, and bright atmosphere. This look and feel also varies by age group—for example, the artwork for younger kids is softer and character-based, while content for older kids is more realistic and detailed.
Spotify App Store
3. Why launch in beta? What are you hoping to learn?
Having a standalone app specifically for younger kids is a new space for Spotify, and we understand the sensitivities around content for children. We are being very deliberate in our launch approach. We’ve started with a beta launch in Ireland, knowing that this initial roll-out phase will yield many learnings from parents, caregivers and other experts as they begin to interact with the app.
As we evolve the Spotify Kids experience over time, we plan to enhance parental control features to allow for even more customization. We’ll also bring our audio expertise to the table with listening experiences that go beyond music—like more stories and audiobooks and eventually podcasts.
4. As you were building the app, did you tap any external resources? Say, consult with any parent organizations or conduct focus groups?
While launching this kids app is an exciting moment for Spotify, creating it was not a task we took lightly. We knew the importance of understanding parents’ needs and making sure they would have peace of mind about the content their kids are consuming.
Spotify has spent more than two years learning about this space, and we’ll continue to learn as people begin to interact with the app. We have gathered expert insight from a number of organizations, including the National Children’s Museum in Washington, D.C., and conducted our own studies with parents around the world and tapped into our Employee Resource Groups here at Spotify.
Spotify Kids is available starting today in Ireland. Ready to get started? Spotify Premium Family master account holders can simply download Kids from the App Store or Google Play, then sign in to their regular Spotify account. (If you’re new to Spotify, you’ll need to sign up for Premium Family before signing in to Spotify Kids.)
For those outside of Ireland, Kids will be rolling out to all markets that currently have Premium Family. Be sure to check back here for more or check out spotify.com/ie/kids.
*Update March 17, 2020: Spotify Kids has also rolled out in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.
Update February 11, 2020: Spotify Kids has also rolled out in the UK and Australia.
Update November 27, 2019: Spotify Kids has also rolled out in Denmark, Sweden, and New Zealand.
Does the free spotify app use data. Update May 12, 2020: Spotify Kids has also rolled out in Germany and Japan.
Spotify Technology S.A. applies a business model, generic strategy, and intensive growth strategies that interdependently support multinational expansion. In its business model design, the music streaming company integrates a revenue model with a general business model type that suits operations in providing a marketplace platform for music creators and music consumers. In relation, Spotify’s generic competitive strategy and intensive strategies are directly based on its business model, leading to a system of model aspects and business strategies that ensure organizational growth and expansion in the international on-demand digital content market. The result of this synergy among the generic strategy, intensive growth strategies, and the business model brings operations into alignment with Spotify’s corporate vision and mission statements, and helps deal with competitors, such as Apple, Google, Pandora, and Amazon. Thus, Spotify’s competitive position remains strong for a foreseeable future of continuing global expansion and potential business diversification.
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Spotify Technology S.A.’s business model, generic competitive strategy, and intensive growth strategies permeate its organizational design. The business model fundamentally defines how the music streaming company operates. For instance, Spotify’s corporate culture and related human resource management strategies are built upon the requirements and definitions from the business model and the generic and intensive growth strategies described in this business analysis.
Spotify’s Business Model Design
From atop-level perspective of its business, Spotify Technology S.A. has a platform business model, which is a major category ofbusiness models. Aplatform business exploits the advantages of network effects for organizationaldevelopment and strategic management, especially in implementing generic strategies forcompetitive advantage and intensivestrategies for growing the streaming music marketplace. For example, Spotify benefits from moreartists and music consumers using its online service as the business expandsglobally. Still, theory and practice show that a company can have one or more business models or acombination of different designs for business modeling. Thus, from a more specific perspective of theon-demand digital content streaming business operations, Spotify’s business model design has thecharacteristics of the following business models:
- Network effects business model and network orchestrator business model
- Freemium business model
- Unlimited subscription business model
Network Effects & Network Orchestrator Business Models. The application of network effects in Spotify’s business design is observable in the value of increasing the company’s user base. Network effects refer to the positive value and benefit of each additional user, who in this case may be an artist (content creator), or a subscriber (content consumer). For example, the benefit of Spotify’s value chain, resources, and capabilities is increased when more artists and consumers join the platform. The company applies the network orchestrator business model by administering its platform as a marketplace where artists and fans meet. The network effects and network orchestrator business models maximize the music streaming user base and, consequently, economies of scale, which is necessary to support Spotify’s generic strategy for competitive advantage. These business models depend on the effectiveness of the company’s intensive strategies for growth by attracting and retaining more artists and music consumers. The two business models are a major factor in the business strengths enumerated in the SWOT analysis of Spotify Technology S.A.
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Freemium Business Model. The freemium businessmodel is typically considered as a revenue model because, in this case,the model defines how Spotify’srevenues are generated from its user base. The company’s streaming service isavailable in two tiers: the advertisement-supported free tier and the premiumtier. For example, Spotify’susers can access songs for free, but with intermittent advertising integrated intotheir listening experience. In contrast, subscribers who pay for the company’s premiumservice can enjoy music without advertisements, along with other premiumfunctions and features that are not available to free-tier users. This business model relates to Spotify’s generic competitive strategyby making the streaming music service available to practically every onlineperson, regardless of intent or capacity to pay for the service. The freemium business model also relatesto the company’s intensivegrowth strategies by enabling competencies in penetrating and developingmarkets. These growth strategies are supported through the easy and wideaccessibility and availability of Spotify’s free and premium online services.
Unlimited Subscription Business Model. This business model involves two main factors: subscription to Spotify’s premium service andunlimited access to the service. The business design emphasis of this model ison customers’ recurring payments to access value-added services. For example, suchvalue is in the form of Spotify’spremium features, starting with the removal of advertising. The company’s costleadership generic strategysupports this business modelby ensuring attractive affordable subscription prices. Also, the intensive strategies ofmarket penetration and market development support Spotify’s unlimited subscription business model by growing thenumber of artists and subscribers to keep the business model feasible and profitable.
Spotify’s Generic Competitive Strategy and Intensive Growth Strategies
Generic Strategy for Competitive Advantage. Spotify applies the cost-leadership generic competitive strategy,which in Michael E. Porter’s framework involves a low cost position forstrategic advantage, and a broad scope for strategic targeting. A low costposition creates strategic advantage for the music streaming business in termsof making the service’s price attractive in the international market. On theother hand, a broad scope is strategically targeted for the purpose of buildingSpotify’s network ofonline users. Both of these characteristics of the generic strategy support the networkeffects business model andthe network orchestrator businessmodel by attracting music artists and subscribers worldwide. As Spotify’s user base grows,the online digital content distribution platform becomes more attractive toartists and fans through network effects. This generic strategy requires that the business apply intensive strategiesfor rapidly growing the market reach of Spotify’s platform operations.
View downloaded music spotify app. Intensive Strategies for Growth. Spotify’s main intensive growth strategies are market development and market penetration. These two strategies are simultaneously applied in order to strengthen the company’s competitive position as the biggest and leading music streaming business in the global market. Based on the Igor Ansoff Matrix, market development aims to further expand Spotify’s service availability to more countries and regions. On the other hand, market penetration is an intensive strategy that aims to grow the number of users of the on-demand music streaming service in existing markets where the company already has operations. Market development and market penetration provide competitive advantage to Spotify’s operations based on economies of scale, while also supporting the network effects business model and the network orchestrator business model: as the population of artists and subscribers grow, the music-streaming platform becomes even more beneficial and valuable to the artists and subscribers. In addition, these intensive growth strategies increase the cost leadership generic strategy’s effectiveness via economies of scale. The application of these intensive growth strategies requires related changes in Spotify’s organizational structure, as more business offices or locations are added. Product development is also applied as an intensive strategy for Spotify’s growth. Can i try spotify free trial after being a subscriber. For example, the company develops and introduces new products, such as new apps and music-related services, sometimes with the involvement of business partners via new alliances.
Implications of Spotify’s Business Model and Generic & Intensive Strategies
Spotify Technology S.A.’s successful multinational expansion, organizational growth, and strategic positioning are attributable to the effective implementation of a business model, intensive growth strategies, and generic competitive strategy suited to the operational objectives of the music platform enterprise. The company’s business model characteristics may change as the organization and music streaming service evolve. For instance, further acquisitions and expansion with new online services in addition to curated playlists and related programs is realistically expectable in Spotify’s future. These future changes may lead to additional business models or design characteristics added to the overall platform business model. Also, Spotify could adjust the relative significance and prioritization levels of its intensive growth strategies, with some modifications of the cost leadership generic strategy for the competitive advantage and growth of the streaming music business.
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- Spotify Launches in India.
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