Starting with a rollout in the U.K., Spotify is testing the waters for an online education offering of freemium video courses. Produced in partnership with third parties like the BBC and Skillshare, at least two lessons will be free, with the cost of a total course ranging from £20 to £80 on average. The prices will be the same, regardless of whether you are a basic or premium user, at least for now.
Designed to look like an audio waveform, scanning these official barcodes with a smartphone will prompt the device to play a specific song on the app. In the past few years, many music fans have chosen to get these tattooed on their body, often sharing them on social media. But as the trend drags on, some are realizing that the tattoos, even just a year later, quickly begin to stop working.
Spotify is launching a dedicated in-app Merch Hub that provides personalized merch recommendations based on your listening habits, the company announced on Monday. Previously, you could purchase artist merch from individual artist profiles, the Now Playing view, and release pages. Now, you can access all artist merch in one dedicated place.
“Today’s announcement of the acquisition of Kinzen is an indication that even that step was not enough — Spotify needed to bring content moderation expertise in-house, it seems.
In short, Kinzen’s solutions are aimed at helping platforms more quickly respond to content moderation issues in real time by using a combination of technology and human expertise at scale.”
