Viacom’s music group is partnering with Spotify to provide free music to its users on Viacom’s website and apps.
The company is planning to provide free music by artists featured on its site along with playlists to its TV series and franchises.
Viacom plans to offer 150 free Spotify playlists across its network sites MTV and VH1 to its users, and Spotify will promote those playlists to more than 40 million of its users, out of which 10 million are paid subscribers.
MTV’s parent company was acquired by Viacom back in 1985 and since then it has been an integral part of the music business.
However, the emergence of online entertainment forced Viacom to replace music-video programmes with scripted series and reality shows.
Spotify founder and chief executive, Daniel Ek, was quoted by Wall Street Journal as saying that MTV was paramount for music lovers when he was growing up in Stockholm.
He added that the younger audience, however, is in a different relationship with Viacom’s programmes and are now more inclined to reality shows.
"We can bring back the music in MTV and bring its programming to a wider audience again," Ek added.
With this move MTV hopes to bring its music programme to a wider audience and for Spotify, Viacom’s music platform would give the company access to Viacom’s 60 million unique monthly visitors which would let Spotify gain more visitors and paid subscribers.
Viacom’s Music Group president and chief executive, Van Toffler, told the news agency that the wanted to renew its reputation for providing "unfiltered access" to artists and bands without leaving Viacom’s sites.
Spotify, valued at $4bn, is presently facing competition from Apple acquired Beats.
