Spotify has evolved in recent years, from a pure music streaming service to one filled with all sorts of audio (and some video) entertainment. And in addition to podcasts and audiobooks (which now come with video clips), Spotify is now adding educational courses to the mix.
Spotify Is Testing Educational Courses in the UK
As originally announced in March 2024, Spotify is currently testing video-based educational courses in the UK. These courses are provided by a handful of content partners, including BBC Maestro, Skillshare, and Superintelligent.
Now, in a post on Spotify’s For the Record, the streaming service has reminded people that these courses are a thing. In a post about starting new habits and working on improving oneself for the new year, Spotify boasts about how its courses can help you “level up.”
Spotify users in the UK can already tune into these courses, with hundreds available under their own tab on the homepage. However, it looks like the reminder that these exist could be a precursor to them becoming available in the United States too.
As you can see above, tech enthusiast Chris Messina recently discovered that Spotify is preparing to launch the Courses genre in the US. As noted by TechCrunch, not only did he see the “Podcasts” tab change to become the “Podcasts & Courses” tab, he could also access the genre by searching for it.
The one issue being that the category pages were empty, with no actual courses available to listen to.
Spotify’s Educational Courses Are Somewhat Confusing
I hope that if and when Spotify Courses land stateside (and the odds are looking good that it will), that the streaming service makes the availability of each course and lesson a little less confusing than it is right now.
As it stands, as a Spotify user in the UK, the genre is a bit of a mess. First, I have a different experience based on whether I access it on my phone or on my web browser. The phone app boasts a “Courses tab,” whereas the Spotify Web Player does not, for example.
But even beyond that, I don’t know which courses, if any, are free, and at what point I’m going to be asked to pay to continue. Some say “Free till 29 Jan 2025” at the top, which implies they’re free at the moment, but not for long. And what happens after that?
I’m all for Spotify expanding its horizons beyond music, and adding educational courses seems like an obvious next step. However, the availability and pricing of each course being offered needs to be much clearer for me to even consider exploring the genre more fully.
