Yahoo and Spotify team up in distribution deal

Spotify to be available on Yahoo sites; Yahoo to create a Spotify app featuring Yahoo content

Spotify is becoming one of the most popular music streaming applications on the Web, and the company just struck a major deal that will bring it to an even bigger audience.

Yahoo and Spotify are teaming up to promote and distribute each other’s content, Yahoo announced Tuesday.

The agreement between the two companies allows Yahoo to “integrate and promote Spotify's on demand music service on Yahoo's Media Network.” The Yahoo network has nearly 700 million unique visitors every month, nearly half of the entire Internet.

Spotify will initially be found on Yahoo Music, and will then be rolled out to the rest of Yahoo’s services, including Yahoo Movies and omg!. Yahoo will also create an app for Spotify that integrates Yahoo content.

"At Spotify we want to light up the Web with music and as Yahoo's global music partner we're able to reach their massive audience," Spotify CEO & Founder Daniel Ek said, in a statement.

"We are really excited about the new Yahoo! leadership team and thrilled to partner with them to build great experiences around high quality content."

Spotify was founded in 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon, The service currently has more than 10 million users.

Currently, the only way to sign up for a Spotify account is through Facebook, but the deal with Yahoo, plus other recent move, signal that it wants to grow into something bigger.

In April, Spotify debuted its “Play” button, which allowed users to embed songs onto their own websites. The Play button will no doubt be integrated into the Yahoo pages.

Then, just a week ago, Spotify announced a new radio service for iOS. The radio service, which had already been available on Spotify’s desktop app, would allow users to listen to music for free on the Spotify app. Prior to this release, users could only listen if they were paying premium members.

Yahoo had previously tried to start its own on-demand music streaming service, Yahoo Music Unlimited, back in 2005, but the service closed just three years later. By integrating the already successful Spotify into their platform, Yahoo is avoiding experiencing the same failure, as well as bringing in what is already a fairly sizable audience.

"Delivering compelling premium experiences across screens is core to our mission at Yahoo. Spotify is the leader in the digital music field and together we can provide the ‘soundtrack' for users around the world," Ross Levinsohn, Interim CEO, Yahoo, said in the release.

"What Daniel and his team are doing is changing an industry, and we're thrilled to be partnering with them."