Spotify’s head of video and podcasts exits amid shift in strategy
The global head of content partnerships at Spotify, Tom Calderone, has left the company. Calderone had been in charge of video strategy, but his departure has left many speculating that the company is moving away from its prior video ambitions. Spotify has said it will focus on video for its owned and operated playlist offerings in future. Calderone was formerly the president of VH1.

Spotify’s global head of content partnerships Tom Calerdone is out, and the music streaming service is getting ready to refocus its video ambitions around its most popular playlists. Calderone, who previously served as VH1’s president, was in charge of building out the company’s video strategy.

A Spotify spokesperson confirmed Calderone’s departure, explaining that he had been transitioning out of his role for the past month.

Bloomberg was first to report the departure Thursday, suggesting that the service was “narrowing” its video ambitions. Spotify’s spokesperson tried to put a different spin on the development, writing:

“We are focusing our expanding video offerings on RapCaviar, Rock This and other popular Spotify owned and operated playlists. Building out our video and podcast content remains a priority for Spotify and we will have more information to share on our future plans soon.”

Last year, Spotify announced the launch of 12 original shows, including a “Carpool Karaoke”-like show called “Traffic Jams” produced by Russel Simmons’ All Def Digital. However, it doesn’t look like any of these shows ever really caught on with Spotify’s users.

In a way, Spotify’s decision to refocus its video production around popular music playlists mirrors YouTube’s early forays into original content. Back in 2012, YouTube spent $100 million on getting outside media partners to produce content for the platform, only to find out that YouTube viewers heavily gravitated to videos produced by people already active on the platform.