Spotify and Yahoo have announced a content distribution partnership that will integrate the streaming music service's "play" button into a host of websites comprising Yahoo's Media Network. The functionality will debut on Yahoo Music before being rolled out to other properties such as Yahoo Movies and Yahoo News, eventually getting the music service in front of some 700 million users worldwide.
Users will need to have Spotify installed and running in order to play music from one of Yahoo's websites, but songs will be loaded in the background so they are not redirected away from web content. New users are still required to sign up using their Facebook credentials so that hasn't changed.
The deal was designed to "drive deeper user engagement" for both companies. For Spotify, it will be an opportunity to gain wider exposure and hopefully bump the number of paid subscribers. Meanwhile, Yahoo stands to get an unspecified cut of the revenue those subscribers generate. The latter also plans create an app for Spotify's third-party platform intended to highlight its original entertainment content.
Spotify currently has 10 million active users according to today's press release, although independent metrics suggest the number is way higher --- 23 million last month. The service is also believed to be the second largest revenue source for record labels after iTunes, which is impressive considering it's only available in 16 markets versus more than 40 for iTunes. The service launched in the US less than a year ago.