Spotify Reportedly Planning to Enter Web Video Business

Music streaming service Spotify is laying plans to enter the Web video business and has been in discussions with several digital media players about potential partnerships, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The company has been reaching out to companies that specialise in making content for Google Inc's YouTube to discuss both acquiring their material and co-creating original video series, the Journal said.

Spotify could announce its video plans as early as this month, the report said. Spotify declined to comment.

The company is nearing a deal to raise $400 million, valuing it at $8.4 billion, the Wall Street Journal had reported last month.

Spotify, which competes with Pandora and Apple's Beats, said in January it had 15 million subscribers and 60 million active users at the end of 2014.

Earlier this week, Spotify said it is setting its sights on Latin America where the 17 countries it operates in could comprise up to 15 percent of its global business.

The privately held Swedish streaming platform is focussing on emerging markets after raising $100 million (roughly Rs. 641 crores) in 2012 to support that growth. Spotify launched in Mexico two years ago, said Spotify's Gustavo Diament, and the country is already among the top five of Spotify's 58 markets.

"It's close to becoming bigger than Germany," he told Reuters this week during eMerge Americas, a Miami Beach-based technology conference.

The key to attracting paying subscribers in Latin America lies in the consumer's ability to pay for services such as Spotify and Pandora as part of their mobile phone contracts.

Edited by NDTV staff from original story by Reuters