Delta Air Lines announced today that is now using Spotify to power the “audio” portion of its in-flight, seatback entertainment.
The partnership brings eight curated playlists to the Delta in-flight entertainment system at launch, including Mood Booster, Are & Be, Hot Country, Mint, Today’s Top Hits, Relax & Unwind, RapCaviar, and Ultimate Indie. Rock This, Roots Rising, and ¡Viva Latino! will be all follow in October. Passengers also will have access to more than 40 select podcast series that have been curated by Spotify and Delta.
The mash-up comes to passengers free of charge, which is welcome news considering all the nickel-and-diming we all experience from the airline industry.
“Our customers expect the very best in-flight entertainment when flying on Delta, and Spotify is the very best in music and podcasts,” Ranjan Goswami, senior vice president of Brand Experience for Delta, said in the company’s news release. “We are not only elevating the audio experience on board, but best-in-class content also is the foundation for our vision of a more personalized travel journey in the future that customers won’t find anywhere else.”
The Delta/Spotify collaboration will be available on any seat that has a screen. All you’ll have to do is plug in your headphones. (Or if you’re the sort who’s gone all wireless, you may need a handy Bluetooth adapter to get things going.)
Why use this instead of just using Spotify on your phone, via Delta’s in-flight Wi-Fi? For one, not everybody on the plane is likely to have Spotify. (Crazy, but true.) So this is an opportunity to get the service in front of more people. And then there are some folks who just don’t like using their phone to do things while on a flight, which is completely understandable.
Spotify is currently available in 178 markets worldwide, and it has more than 365 million monthly active users.
