Streaming music service Spotify hired Tom Calderone, who led Viacom’s VH1 music channel for seven years, this month as its global head of content partnerships.
A big hire for Sweden-based Spotify’s fledgling video business, Calderone will direct all original content, shows and studio content, as well as artist, publisher and label relations. He joined the company Tuesday.
Spotify unveiled plans last year to introduce video to its subscription music service in a move to appeal more broadly to consumers through a lineup of traditional and digital content providers like Viacom’s Comedy Central, Vice Media, Disney’s ESPN and its digital unit Maker Studios. But the effort has been slow to emerge, spending nine months in testing with small groups of listeners before rolling out in the U.S. last month.
Calderone left Viacom last year, after seven years as the president of VH1 and 17 years with MTV Networks. He will be based in New York and report to Stefan Blom, Spotify’s chief content and strategy officer.
After launching in 2008, Spotify rose to the top of a heap of music start-ups in the new model of selling subscriptions to access a catalog of millions of songs. It has gained more paying members than any other service of its kind, even as deep pocketed rivals like Apple Music launched. Last month, Spotify was said to be nearing 30 million paid members, up from the 20 million that it reported in June. Rival Apple Music has said it has 11 million subscribers.
Who's Who in the Apple Vs. FBI Feud (Photos)
Tim Cook
Apple's CEO sparked headlines by refusing to help the FBI unlock an iPhone linked to a deadly mass shooting, shining a spotlight on a long-simmering tension between protecting either digital privacy or public safety from attacks
Getty Images
Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik
The couple killed 14 people in December's mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. Using a warrant to searching a car linked to the husband, Farook, law enforcement discovered a passcode-protected iPhone. They want to bypass security blockers to peek into the phone's data for clues about associates or possible future attacks.
U.S. Government
James Comey
The FBI's director defended the agency's request that Apple help crack the shooter's iPhone, saying investigators wouldn't be able to look survivors in their eyes if the FBI didn't pursue the lead.
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Eileen M. Decker
The U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, Decker is the top Justice Department official fighting on behalf of the FBI in court. Decker said the court's order would help investigators uncover the motives behind the attack. “We have made a solemn commitment to the victims and their families that we will leave no stone unturned," she said.
Department of Justice
Donald Trump
The Republican presidental candidate seized on the standoff pitting Apple against national security interests, calling for a boycott of the company until it helps unlock the phone.
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Edward Snowden
The former intelligence contractor, who leaked documents in 2013 that exposed warrantless government surveillance, called the face-off "the most important tech case in a decade" and criticized the FBI for creating a world where Apple protects citizens' rights, rather than the other way around.
Praxis Films
Sundar Pichai
Google's CEO, who is instrumental in the world's other major smartphone operating system besides Apple's, was the first major figure in Silicon Valley to express support for Cook. He said requiring companies to enable hacking of customer devices and data "could be a troubling precedent."
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Mark Zuckerberg
The CEO of Facebook, the world's biggest social network, said his company was “sympathetic” to Apple. “We believe in encryption,” he said.
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John McAfee
The anti-virus software businessman, who is known for his own tangles with law enforcement, said he and his team of hackers would break into Farook's iPhone for the FBI at no charge, to eliminate the need for Apple to develop another way in. "I would eat my shoe... if we could not break the encryption on the San Bernardino phone," he said.
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Apple and the U.S. government are facing off over a killer terrorist’s locked iPhone. Here are the main figures in the case
Tim Cook
Apple's CEO sparked headlines by refusing to help the FBI unlock an iPhone linked to a deadly mass shooting, shining a spotlight on a long-simmering tension between protecting either digital privacy or public safety from attacks
Getty Images
U.S. Government
