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Spotify did test paid video courses—but they are no longer available. The UK-only experiment began in March 2024, and Spotify says it removed the course catalog on March 31, 2026. That makes “Spotify’s next big bet is online video courses” an outdated description. The more revealing question is whether the test was a misguided detour—or a reasonable experiment that did not earn a place in Spotify’s product.
What Spotify’s course experiment actually was
Spotify did not launch a new education subscription or build an online university. It created a curated storefront for prerecorded video courses from outside providers, surfaced in the Spotify app’s Home and Browse areas. Users could browse there, buy courses through a dedicated web page, and watch them on mobile or desktop. Both Free and Premium users in the UK could watch at least two lessons before deciding whether to pay. Spotify’s launch announcement described four broad categories: make music, get creative, learn business, and healthy living.
The initial partners included BBC Maestro, PLAYvirtuoso (later referred to as WhatClass), Skillshare, and Thinkific. BBC Maestro supplied polished, expert-led lessons; PLAYvirtuoso focused on music-related learning; Skillshare brought creative classes; and Thinkific contributed course-creation and online-learning material. Spotify later added AI-focused courses from Superintelligent. BBC Studios said seven BBC Maestro courses were included in the test, among them a business course led by Steven Bartlett. This was chiefly a distribution and aggregation play: Spotify was offering partner-made learning content to its users, not producing a complete education product itself.
There was no single universal price. Reports from the launch period commonly put courses around £20–£80, while other coverage observed prices ranging from about £11 to £240, with many around £40–£50. Those are historical 2024 reports, not prices for a product readers can buy today. Spotify Premium did not automatically include the courses; users still had to purchase them separately.
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Why Spotify thought people might want courses in a music app
The idea had a plausible audience-adjacency argument. Spotify said around half of its Premium subscribers had engaged with education- or self-help-themed podcasts. People already used the service to listen and learn, the company reasoned, so a curated set of video classes might offer creators access to a large audience and give users another useful reason to open the app.
That logic fits a broader Spotify strategy of expanding beyond music into podcasts, audiobooks, video, and creator tools. An experiment in one market can be a rational way to test whether users will follow a service into a neighboring category. It does not, by itself, mean Spotify expected to replace established learning platforms or become a full-scale online school.
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Where the fit broke down
The weakness was not simply that courses included business or wellness topics alongside music. It was that structured learning asks users to behave differently from the way they usually use Spotify. Music and podcasts are easy to start, pause, discover, and play in the background. A course is more likely to demand focused attention, a sequence of lessons, practice, notes, feedback, and a reason to return until a skill is learned.
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- Discovery was not the same as differentiation. Partner courses were not necessarily exclusive, and users could often find the same providers elsewhere. Spotify’s clearest edge was audience access, not a uniquely deep course catalog or learning system.
- The purchase could feel disconnected from Premium. Courses were separate purchases rather than a benefit bundled into the subscription many users already paid for.
- The business model risked one-and-done use. A course purchase might generate a sale, but not necessarily the repeat engagement that supports a lasting subscription relationship.
- The product depended on partners. Spotify brought together existing course libraries rather than owning the whole experience, from instruction and assessment to ongoing support.
These are reasons the offering looked strategically awkward—not proof that every course was poor or that Spotify had no demand. The company has not publicly supplied enough evidence here to conclude that weak sales, low completion, or any one factor caused the shutdown.
The course catalog is gone
Spotify’s UK support page states that it removed the course catalog on March 31, 2026. It says purchased courses would be refunded and sets out a deadline for completing courses already started. That is the clearest current status: Spotify Courses was a real UK test, but it is not a continuing service. Spotify has not, in the cited materials, offered a detailed public explanation for ending it, so the removal should not be treated as proof of a specific commercial failure.
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The shutdown does, however, answer the practical question for prospective customers: there is no current Spotify course catalog to shop. Old launch coverage may still appear in search results, so check the date before relying on claims that courses are available.
Spotify’s continuing video strategy is elsewhere
Courses should not be confused with Spotify’s wider video push. Video podcasts have a much closer link to the company’s existing relationships with listeners, publishers, and creators. At its May 2026 Investor Day, Spotify said more than 500 million users had streamed a video podcast, up nearly 50% year over year. The company also highlighted podcast discovery, questions and answers about podcast content, sponsorship tools, memberships, and video-related creator revenue. Those audience and growth figures are Spotify-reported, not an independent audit. Spotify’s Investor Day announcement lays out the product direction.
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Music videos are another, distinct bet. In June 2026 Spotify began beta-testing direct uploads of full-length videos through Spotify for Artists for selected artists. The formats include official videos, live performances, studio sessions, and covers. Spotify says its internal analysis found that, on average, listeners who streamed a music video played the associated song 64% more often over the following three weeks. That is the company’s own measurement, and it suggests the strategic rationale: video can feed music discovery and listening rather than sit beside it as an unrelated category. The beta’s availability is limited; it is not a promise that every artist can upload videos today. Spotify for Artists explains the beta.
Creator monetization reinforces that connection. Spotify’s Partner Program combines potential revenue from Premium video engagement in selected markets with advertising and sponsorship tools. In a January 2026 announcement, Spotify said eligibility in supported markets was being broadened to creators meeting thresholds that included 1,000 Spotify audience members and 2,000 hours consumed in the previous 30 days, plus three published episodes. Those conditions are market- and program-specific, so creators should consult Spotify’s current terms rather than assume the thresholds apply everywhere. Spotify’s creator announcement describes the expansion.
Is Spotify “truly lost”?
There is a fair criticism behind the provocative claim. Every new category can dilute what Spotify is for, and the course test did not appear to offer a distinctive learning workflow that would make the app a natural destination for education. A storefront for third-party classes, with separate payments and limited learning features, asked users to accept a new behavior without an obvious Spotify-specific payoff. Ending the catalog suggests the experiment did not become a durable product, even if the precise reason is not public.
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The better test for Spotify’s next expansion is whether it strengthens the loop among content, discovery, listeners, and creator economics. The UK course experiment struggled to show why Spotify was better than the course providers’ own services at helping people learn. Video podcasts and music videos have a more legible answer: they extend formats already tied to Spotify’s entertainment catalog and creator relationships. Whether those bets pay off is a separate question, but they are not evidence that online courses remain Spotify’s next big bet.
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