What I think might be confusing here is that we’re using Spotify as a YouTube alternative, not a Nebula alternative. The Spotify experience will basically be the same as YouTube: automatic ads and baked-in sponsorships.
So this is really kinda a nothingburger compared to what I was initially thinking. It’s just Nebula creators expanding the free version of their content from YouTube-only to YouTube-and-elsewhere.
It is a nothingburger for people who are subscribed to Nebula. It is a bigger deal for YouTube since this is probably the biggest foray of another company trying to compete against YouTube directly.
Eh, we’ll see. Any company that doesn’t match YouTube’s “anyone can upload anything by default” strategy can’t really be a serious competitor to YouTube, I think. Spotify is no more going to be a YouTube competitor than Nebula itself is, IMO, if this is just allowing particular creators they’ve chosen to work with, which is what it seems like.
Though even that much is a good thing to see. If they’re serious about it. But considering Spotify’s floundering around in different areas, it’s not clear just how serious they really are.
Spotify may not need to go down to “anyone can download” level to threaten YouTube. Music videos, professional, and semi-professional video may be enough to threaten YouTube’s economic model.
And Spotify may not be able to afford the infrastructure to handle any video upload, but the online video market has matured enough that Spotify may not need to allow anyone to upload in order to build a robust online video catalog.
They don’t have to be the home, but a home would be enough to rock the boat for YouTube. If Spotify can succeed here, they might be able to negotiate non-exclusive rights to Vevo’s backlog.
Comment from Nebula CEO Dave Wiskus on Reddit:
So this is really kinda a nothingburger compared to what I was initially thinking. It’s just Nebula creators expanding the free version of their content from YouTube-only to YouTube-and-elsewhere.
It is a nothingburger for people who are subscribed to Nebula. It is a bigger deal for YouTube since this is probably the biggest foray of another company trying to compete against YouTube directly.
Eh, we’ll see. Any company that doesn’t match YouTube’s “anyone can upload anything by default” strategy can’t really be a serious competitor to YouTube, I think. Spotify is no more going to be a YouTube competitor than Nebula itself is, IMO, if this is just allowing particular creators they’ve chosen to work with, which is what it seems like.
Though even that much is a good thing to see. If they’re serious about it. But considering Spotify’s floundering around in different areas, it’s not clear just how serious they really are.
Spotify may not need to go down to “anyone can download” level to threaten YouTube. Music videos, professional, and semi-professional video may be enough to threaten YouTube’s economic model.
And Spotify may not be able to afford the infrastructure to handle any video upload, but the online video market has matured enough that Spotify may not need to allow anyone to upload in order to build a robust online video catalog.
Spotify has always missed the trick that they could be the home of music videos.
They don’t have to be the home, but a home would be enough to rock the boat for YouTube. If Spotify can succeed here, they might be able to negotiate non-exclusive rights to Vevo’s backlog.