As we’ve seen with virtual concerts from the likes of Travis Scott in Fortnite and Lil Nas X in Roblox, music and online gaming audiences have become a natural fit. Leading streaming music platform Spotify has clearly witnessed these gaming synergies and has decided to leverage the burgeoning metaverse to enhance the online experience for its own users. The company recently launched its own “Spotify Island” within the popular creator platform Roblox. The virtual space is described as “a paradise of sound where fans and artists from all over the world can hang out and explore a wonderland of sounds, quests and exclusive merch.”
With Spotify Island, Spotify has planted its flag as the first music streaming service in the metaverse, and the company noted that it clearly believes in the strong revenue potential of marrying gaming and music culture. There are already over 2.2 million user-generated playlists on Spotify specifically for gamers, the company stressed. Spotify global head of partner marketing Alia Calhoun commented to Adweek, “We want to meet this next generation of gamers where they are opening up new opportunities for fans and artists.”
Spotify Island has been built in Roblox as a central mainland surrounded by several themed islands. As players explore the virtual space, they can interact with various objects, go on quests, and unlock content. The island will also offer a dedicated merch store that will give visitors the chance to purchase Spotify or artist-related merchandise, which is then usable in other parts of Roblox as well.
The artist merch will help drive the creator economy within Roblox too, which has always been vital to the platform and is something that Spotify is smart to recognize. “The stage isn’t the typical artist broadcast to fan experience. We’re flipping the script and empowering players to be the creators and truly feel like they’re the artist performing,” said Abby Stewart, director of Business Development at Spotify.
Given the history of concerts in the metaverse, it would not be surprising to see Spotify land exclusive performances within Spotify Island in the near future. This could even be a perk for Spotify Premium users (or incentive to subscribe), as Interpret’s New Media Measure® shows that Spotify Premium members already play more Roblox and world building games than their Spotify free user counterparts. Additionally, on mobile – where many users are likely to stream music from Spotify – Spotify users of any tier are more likely to have played Roblox in the past three months than general gamers. It’s likely just a matter of time before Pandora and other Spotify competitors dive into the metaverse as well.
