Spotify Loves Libra, Is a Founding Member of Facebook’s Cryptocurrency

The music streaming giant will be joining the likes of eBay, Uber, Lyft, MasterCard, Visa, Paypal, and Stripe, among others, as the first to support the venture. Altogether, these companies will form the “Libra Association,” which is intended to be an independent ‘not-for-profit’ organization. The promise of Libra is to be able to send money anywhere, instantly, and with only a smartphone. It’s meant to be as easy as sending a text message. In a blog post, Spotify explained its reasoning for getting involved. The company believes that the cryptocurrency will have a direct impact on many of the developing markets Spotify is currently targeting. As the company’s Chief Premium Business Officer, Alex Norstrom, told reporters, Spotify’s main problem now is its lack of accessible payment systems. This, naturally, affects financially underserved markets worse. However, Libra could change this. “In joining the Libra Association, there is an opportunity to better reach Spotify’s total addressable market, eliminate friction and enable payments in mass scale,” Norstrom said. Spotify seems set on using Libra to allow users to pay for its services. However, the streaming service currently has no plans to leverage blockchain technology to allow users to pay artists directly. However, such plans have been subject to speculation, since it is within the realm of possibility. It’s still quite early for Libra. It was just announced today, after all, and won’t be released until 2020. Yet, Spotify is the sole music streaming service currently on its board. The company will inevitably have a close-up look at how the technology develops and will likely integrate the Libra into its services from day one. Do you believe Spotify will ever issue its own cryptocurrency or blockchain? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.