What does this idea have to do with membership in news? As a journalist, I’ve spent the last three years covering the intersection of music and tech - with a focus on how streaming services impact both the artist community and the complex business ecosystem behind them - and have found that the music and news industries face similar issues when it comes to engaging with fans and supporters.

Same with Netflix, which just launched a new video series with Vox called Explained that provides 15-minute briefings on a variety of current events topics, from K-pop to DNA editing and racial inequality. Known primarily as a music streaming service, the Swedish company has its sights on becoming a farther-reaching multimedia hub, signing podcast deals with partners like BuzzFeed, Refinery29, and Cheddar. Apple also saw strategic value in the idea with its recent acquisition of Texture, an aggregator often called the “Netflix of magazines.”Įven Spotify itself, with 157 million monthly active users across 61 countries, seems eager to become a Spotify for lifestyle coverage. Companies ranging from startups Inkl and Blendle to mainstays Scribd and Reuters have openly exploited the analogy for the press.

This might sound ridiculous, given the number of startups that purport to do just that: “newsify” the business model behind Spotify and Netflix of bottomless access to aggregated content from multiple sources for a monthly fee. I spent the last few months trying to find the next “Spotify for news” - only to discover that it doesn’t exist.

Spotify news broadcast