Tag: streaming platforms

Skip warns that the most dangerous partner is the one your business can’t afford to lose. Once a platform controls the customer, data, pricing, or path to growth, the partnership has become the business.

Skip breaks down why streaming companies don't truly own subscribers when platforms control billing, discovery, customer data, packaging, and reengagement.

Basics of Streaming explains how customer acquisition has become an infrastructure challenge, not just a marketing problem. Trials, discounts, bundles, and partner offers can bring subscribers in, but platforms need billing, lifecycle marketing, personalization, and retention systems to turn promotional…

From the Archives revisits TiVo Suggestions, one of TV’s earliest recommendation engines and a preview of how discovery would become core to streaming. TiVo used viewing behavior and feedback to predict what users might like, proving that understanding taste could…

YouTube’s rolling out invite-only in-app messaging for users 18+, letting viewers share and react to videos, Shorts, and livestreams without leaving the app. The move helps YouTube turn sharing into a retention loop by keeping the video, conversation, notification, and…

From the Archives revisits how Rhapsody launched the subscription streaming model years before consumers, devices, and infrastructure were ready to support it at scale. The piece argues that while Spotify eventually dominated the category, Rhapsody helped establish the core mechanics…

Roku's redesign turns its TV operating system into a more aggressive discovery and advertising platform, using personalized recommendations and subscription prompts to influence viewing behavior before users enter streaming apps. As streaming fragmentation grows, Roku’s betting control over discovery and…

Universal Music Group's renewed deal with TikTok highlights how major labels are pushing platforms to tighten AI music moderation, attribution, and rights enforcement as generative music scales. The agreement, alongside UMG’s separate AI-focused licensing approach with Spotify, shows the industry…

Basics of Streaming explains how AI's becoming a foundational intelligence layer across the streaming ecosystem, influencing everything from recommendations and search to encoding, advertising, moderation, and churn prediction. The piece argues that competitive advantage in streaming increasingly depends on how…

Spotify signed a licensing deal with Universal Music Group that lets Premium subscribers create AI-generated remixes and covers using UMG’s catalog through a paid add-on tier. The agreement gives artists revenue shares while positioning Spotify as a licensed AI music…