Why Spotify was the first music streaming to join Libra's Association

The Facebook's criptocurrency has other partners like Lyft, Mastercard, PayPal, Uber, VISA.

Spotify was the first music streaming to joining Libra's Association — Photo: Shutterstock

26.Jun.2019 11:49 BRT
UPDATED 13.Feb.2020 16:21 BRT

With the adoption of Libra, Spotify intends to reach a 1,7 billion unbanked audience of adults with potential to subscribe in their platform.
While emerging markets don’t have an official launching date for Libra, the South Asia market is the most promise.

Last week, Facebook has kept the global market attention after the announcement of their own cryptocurrency: the Libra. And between the first official partners in the project, there is only one music platform: Spotify.

In an official statement in Spotify‘s blog, the company explains that the main point for joining Libra’s Association is to promote access, especially for the unbanked worldwide population, who don’t have access to mobile money, bank accounts or credit or debit cards.

“One challenge for Spotify and its users around the world has been the lack of easily accessible payment systems – especially for those in financially underserved markets. This creates an enormous barrier to the bonds we work to foster between creators and their fans. In joining the Libra Association, there is an opportunity to better reach Spotify’s total addressable market, eliminate friction and enable payments in mass scale”, explains Alex Norström, the Chief Premium Business Officer of Spotify.

The South Asia market, where Spotify is already well-succeeded, is the most promise for Libra’s adoption. Even that smartphones have a large penetration in the region, consumers are still limited by data plans and network conditions, according to Forbes. Facebook’s cryptocurrency is one of the methods announced by Spotify to overcome these barriers and keep growing.

For now, Libra’s Association hasn’t announced an official launching date for emerging markets, but considering the current success of Spotify in Latin America, it could be also offered for Latin Americans as a different solution to give access for the unbanked population. Let’s wait and see!

Read more about the Spotify’s stories in Latin America: “Spotify Has Now 100M Paid Subscribers and One of the Most Important Pieces of their Strategy is Latin America”