BBC working with Spotify on a new video-learning content test

Spotify users will now be able to access and purchase 7 of BBC Maestro’s high-quality, video courses led by some of the world’s greatest experts.  Spotify users will find the video courses alongside their favourite music, podcasts and audiobooks.

The courses available on Spotify cover a variety of topics, categorised into four main themes: make music, get creative, learn business and healthy living, giving listeners an abundance of options to expand their knowledge. 

The BBC Maestro courses now available on Spotify UK are:

• Steven Bartlett, The 16 Steps to Start and Scale a Multi-Million-Pound Business: In this course the Diary of a CEO host and Dragon’s Den entrepreneur shares his secrets to building and growing a highly successful business
• Mo Gawdat – Happiness: Bestselling author, Slo Mo podcast host, and ex-Google CBO shares a revolutionary approach to engineer your path to happiness
• Lee Child – Writing Popular Fiction: Learn how to write a page-turning thriller with the award-winning author behind Jack Reacher
• Marco Pierre White – Delicious Food Cooked Simply: Cook up a storm in the kitchen with the renowned, Michelin-starred chef
• Jancis Robinson – An Understanding of Wine: Take a deep dive into the world of wine, with one of the most respected wine critics in the game
• Gary Barlow – Songwriting: Craft a hit record, with Take That’s multi-award-winning singer-songwriter
• Paula Scher – Graphic Design: Learn how to make it in the competitive world of graphic design, with the name behind some of the world’s biggest brands

Courses can be listened to in audio or watched in video format. Each course comes with 2 free lessons, so users have the chance to try before they buy.

“Testing video courses in the UK allows us to explore an exciting opportunity to better serve the needs of our users who have an active interest in learning. Many of our users engage with podcasts and audiobooks on a daily basis for their learning needs and we believe this highly engaged community will be interested in accessing and purchasing quality content from video course creators,” shares Babar Zafar, VP Product Development at Spotify. “At Spotify, we’re constantly striving to create new offerings for our creators and users and having built best-in-class personalised music and podcast offerings, we look forward to exploring the potential of video-based learning on Spotify.” 

BBC Maestro’s Chief Strategy Office, Spencer Gillman, said: “At BBC Maestro, we believe in the power of learning from the world’s greatest teachers. This partnership with Spotify will enable us to reach millions of new learners, inspiring them to learn new skills, begin a new hobby, or increase their wellbeing.”

With this new offering, Spotify is expanding its catalogue and opening up an opportunity for educational creators like BBC Maestro to reach a larger audience.    

To access the content in the Spotify app:

On the mobile app, UK users will find courses videos in the home and browse tabs.

Once clicked through, users can explore available courses across the four categories before purchasing them on desktop. Once purchased the courses will be available on mobile and desktop.

On desktop: https://courses.spotify.com/home

Users can select courses they’re interested in and upon purchase start learning, watching on mobile app or desktop.