Spotify switches on Apple TV video. Highlights missed opportunity
A long-awaited update to the Spotify app has come to Apple TV, bringing video podcasts to the platform. This is functionality that has been available on the Google TV Spotify app for some time.
The value is mostly in bringing video podcasts to the connected TV app, but lets talk about music video functionality for a moment…
Yesterday in the newsletter I was talking about audiences in digital environments wanting to be able to flick past video news stories they are not interested in watching - it’s why linear video news doesn’t quite work on mobile handsets.
The same applies to music videos. In the 80s and 90s, young people were more than happy to sit on the couch devouring hours upon hours of them. But, that behaviour is a relic of yesteryear now that young people consume music in digital environments.
Spotify, beefing up its video credentials, introduced music videos onto its platform. What it didn’t do, however, was to make the experience frictionless for those who actually want to embrace music videos on the platform.
How good would it be to load up an 80s playlist of bangers and press a button that would play the music videos as default, filtering out tracks where music videos aren’t available?
Instead the experience is:
Play song
Notice button appears saying music video is available
Press button
Wait a moment for video to load
Rewind to play song from the beginning again
And then repeat that action for every song in a playlist where the video is available.
That experience gets to be even better on a connected TV environment where videos can be consumed in the exact same way as they were in the 80s and 90s (on the lounge room TV as background activity or when having drinks with friends), only now because it’s digital, the ability to create playlists with awesome music videos and/or just skip past the songs you don’t want to hear.
Like video podcasts, this seems to be the ideal use case for Spotify on connected TVs. But that’s not how the app is built.
Read more at The Verge
This video is incredible, FYI:
Related:
An interesting comment by way of
at Mumbrella (Australia’s best dedicated media trade website, FYI), about the ARN Upfronts yesterday and how the Australian radio network is repositioning itself as an entertainment company and not a radio business (please ignore that ARN is an acronym):Not a radio network. Not even an “audio” company, as many who have expanded from the dial to the digital realm are now portraying themselves. ARN makes videos and content for online; it hosts live music events, singles cruises, and local run clubs; it is the Australian licensee of the world’s biggest podcasting platform — and yeah, I guess it also runs 58 radio stations across 33 markets, plus dozens of specialty DAB+ channels.
The rationale offered by ARN chief Michael Stephenson is that as audio is moving further online, ARN is supporting it all with video versions of its product. Video podcasts and the like.
I’ve banged on for some time about the missed opportunity at Nine not to go all in on video for its Nine Radio stations, integrating the talk content into its BVOD platform and news websites. It’s interesting to hear that Stephenson is pushing his audio company in that direction. And it all makes sense, because that’s where the audience is headed themselves.
News Desk
Adam Driver will star in Netflix hostage drama series Rabbit, Rabbit. That’s not to be confused with the Jason Bateman/Jude Law series Black Rabbit. Read: thefutoncritic
Steven Pasquale is one of those “Oh, it’s that guy” actors who, I suspect, drives a lot of IMDB searches as people try to remember what they have seen him in before. He’s joining the season two cast of Netflix’s Tina Fey comedy The Four Seasons. Read: Deadline
HBO hasn’t renewed its deal with hotel chain Four Seasons (not to be confused with the Tina Fey comedy), so the new season of The White Lotus is currently scouting locations. It has been revealed that the new season will mostly be set in the south of France with a side quest in Paris. Read: Variety
Iconic costumes and props from Batman (1966), I Dream of Jeannie, Happy Days, The Munsters, Get Smart, Star Trek, and more have been sold at auction. The auction was selling off Dr. Stewart Berkowitz’s collection - he was an oncologist recognised by collector communities as having one of the more significant pop culture collections. Berkowitz died last year at age 64.
Philip K Dick’s The World Jones Made will be adapted by Netflix as a Spanish-language series. Read: C21
Long Island Compromise, a new show adapted from a book by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, is no longer in development at Apple. It’ll be shopped around. Having loved the Hulu adaptation of her novel Fleishman Is in Trouble, I’m keen to see it land elsewhere. Read: Variety
Family Matters stars Kellie Williams and Telma Hopkins are launching a re-watch podcast. Read: Variety
BMF has been cancelled after four seasons at Starz. Read: THR
Betsy Brandt will join season 3 of AMC’s Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches. Read: thefutoncritic
Disney has closed its acquisition of Fubo. Read: Deadline
James Hibberd and Peter Kiefer at THR have a good, in-depth piece about how Paramount bungled efforts to keep Taylor Sheridan.
The narrative David Ellison has set around the major redundancies at Paramount has been about addressing redundancies across the business and a focus on growth. Read: THR
2000 cuts are planned, with the first 1000 lost jobs impacting US staffers across CBS News, the Paramount film studio, and cable networks like MTV, Nickelodeon and BET. International staff will be impacted in the second round. Read: NYT
Uh, Cheryl
If I were to interview Cheryl Hines, I’d only be interested in finding out definitively if she respects wood. But, lets be real Cheryl, what else would the ladies from The View be interested in talking to you about? Early 2010s sitcom Suburgatory?
Just a thought…
Why was there never a Celebrity The Floor is Lava?
Trailer Park
The Crystal Cuckoo debuts Nov 14 on Netflix.
Hoping to learn more about her heart donor, a young doctor arrives in a mountain town where decades of mysterious tragedies plague the small community.
A Thousand Blows returns to Hulu Jan 9 for season 2.
That’s the newsletter for today.
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