In a major transfer throughout the aviation and digital leisure sectors, Spotify has solid a strategic partnership with United Airways. This collaboration will combine Spotify’s intensive audio and video content material straight into the in-flight leisure programs of over 680 United plane.
The settlement grants Spotify entry to greater than 130,000 seat-back screens, enabling the corporate to supply its numerous vary of audio podcasts, video podcasts, audiobooks, and curated playlists to hundreds of thousands of vacationers yearly, freed from cost. This marks a notable growth for Spotify, representing the primary occasion of its audiobooks and video podcasts being accessible onboard an airline.
United Airways, which transported 173.6 million passengers in 2024, is leveraging this partnership to reinforce its passenger expertise. The mixing will see Spotify seem as a brand new content material class, changing the generic “audio” choice on in-flight menus. Over the approaching months, a devoted Spotify channel can be launched throughout the vast majority of United’s fleet, consolidating all Spotify content material for ease of entry.
A key characteristic of this alliance, slated for 2026, will permit passengers on Starlink-equipped plane to log into their private Spotify accounts by way of the seat-back screens. This performance will allow a personalised listening expertise, permitting vacationers to entry their saved content material and decide up the place they left off.
Richard Nunn, CEO of MileagePlus, United’s loyalty program, emphasised the broad enchantment of Spotify’s content material, stating that this partnership presents prospects an “totally new solution to expertise and discover premium content material.” Ian Geller, VP of Enterprise Growth at Spotify, highlighted the corporate’s dedication to reaching customers throughout varied platforms and offering creators with new audiences.
This initiative underscores Spotify’s strategic push into new distribution channels past conventional cellular and desktop interfaces, reflecting an trade development in direction of enriching the passenger journey with numerous digital choices. United will even promote Spotify Premium subscriptions to its MileagePlus members, offering incentives for brand spanking new sign-ups.
[H/T] Music Business Worldwide
