By: Nick Gambino
Spotify has made a name for itself as the world’s leading music streaming platform. In an era defined by single song streams as opposed to physical album sales, this isn’t a bad title to have. But now it looks like the giant is looking to move into hardware sales.
While we’ve heard rumblings of their intent to create their own physical devices, a recent job listing on Spotifyjobs.com all but confirms it. The listing states their intention to hire people to fill jobs in Market Operations, Product Management and Sales & Marketing.
“Spotify is on its way to creating its first physical products and setting up an operational organisation for manufacturing, supply chain, sales & marketing,” the listing reads.
This isn’t the first time we’ve gleaned information on Spotify’s future plans from a job listing. Earlier listings stated their desire to create a “category-defining product akin to Pebble Watch, Amazon Echo, and Snap Spectacles.” Whether their plans shifted or expanded is anyone’s guess. The previous listing was looking for people experienced in voice control products to “be responsible for the strategy and execution of Spotify’s voice efforts beyond our core apps.”
Signs lead to the product being some kind of speaker but the “category-defining” title suggests it’ll be more innovative. In the fast-paced world of tech, simply coming out with another smart speaker a la the Echo or Google Home would be considered lazy and uninspired.
Plus, the comparison to Snap Spectacles indicates they’re looking to create something Spotify-specific and unique. At least that’s what they’ll have to do to create real success. As a company, this will be their first foray into hardware so it’s not a given that they’ll win the day with whatever product they decide to release.
With over 70 million subscribers and more than 140 million active users (January 2018 numbers) they definitely have a strong jumping off point, at least in terms of trust and name recognition.
Now let’s see what they can do with it.
