Spotify to expand its digital currency footprint with new hire

World’s largest music streaming platform Spotify is looking to expand its footprint in the digital currencies and blockchain industry. The company is hiring a new payments head, with digital currencies, CBDCs and decentralized ledger technology among the areas of focus.

As per a posting on hiring site Lever, Spotify is looking for an associate director of payments strategy and innovation. The successful applicant will be responsible for “managing the growth, stability and future direction of Spotify’s approach to payments globally,” the posting states.

Based in London or Stockholm, the director will lead Spotify’s day-to-day engagement with Facebook’s Diem, formerly known as Libra. As CoinGeek reported, Facebook changed the name of its stablecoin this week. The Libra Association, which oversees the stablecoin project, has rebranded to Diem as well.

Spotify continues to be a Diem supporter, even as a quarter of previous Diem backers have withdrawn their support. They include Mastercard, PayPal, eBay, Vodafone, Visa and Stripe.

In 2019, Spotify attempted to explain why it supports Libra, stating, “Libra offers massive opportunity for simple, convenient, and safe payment over the internet (particularly for the 1.7 billion adults worldwide without access to mobile money, a bank account, or a payment card). We’ve seen this directly in many of the developing markets where we operate.”

Aside from Libra, the new director will also expand the company’s presence in the digital currency sector.

As per the job posting, “[the director] will drive further consideration of new opportunities and innovation in the emerging ecosystem of distributed ledger technology, blockchains, cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and other digital assets.”

Launched in 2008, Spotify has grown aggressively to become the market leader in music streaming. It currently boasts of having 320 million active monthly users.

Spotify’s most notable move in the blockchain industry was its 2017 acquisition of MediaChain Labs blockchain startup. MediaChain allows content creators to leverage blockchain to take ownership of their content.

See also: CoinGeek Live panel, Re-Invent the Internet: New Models for Digital Media & User Content