Spotify and Hulu are teaming up to offer a combined subscription to college students for just $4.99 a month.
“Spotify Premium for Students, with Hulu,” as the companies have labeled the deal, adds Hulu’s limited commercials plan to Spotify’s existing $4.99-a-month premium streaming deal. They announced the new partnership Thursday morning, and any student who is already subscribed to Spotify’s premium deal will now have access to Hulu as part of their membership. Considering Hulu’s library includes the full backlogs of dorm room staples like Broad City, plus original series like The Handmaid’s Tale—not too shabby.
Spotify and Hulu are partnering to encourage students to binge-watch and binge-listen to everything https://t.co/8fs97dEtmX
— Vulture (@vulture) September 7, 2017
Business Insider points out that the new deal marks Spotify’s first foray into TV-and-movie partnerships. The music streaming service previously tried to launch its own digital video branch in 2016, with a dozen original shows, but had trouble finding an audience. The company also confirmed the hiring of Disney executive Courtney Holt to run original video and podcast programming just Wednesday, so it’s safe to say that more partnerships might be on the horizon. According to Spotify, this student bundle is just the “first step”—they plan to target non-students with a similar bundle deal soon.
As the Verge points out, this partnership is part of a “wave of carrier/content combos” that have formed over the last couple years. “AT&T has DirecTV and HBO. Verizon has the NFL. Sprint is pushing Tidal. And just yesterday, T-Mobile announced a new offer for free Netflix.”
It might just be that Spotify and Hulu are using this partnership to fend off the appeal of those other bundles for their younger customers, while they’re still forming their brand loyalties.
The offer is open to all “undergraduate students enrolled in a U.S. Title IV accredited college or university in the United States.”
H/T Business Insider