Barcelona have confirmed Spotify as their new ‘main partner’ in a landmark deal which will see the club’s Nou Camp stadium undergo a name change.
Spotify – a music streaming service - will be on front of the club’s men’s and women’s shirts for the next four seasons, on Barca’s training shirts for the next three campaigns while most notably, the club’s stadium will now be named Spotify Camp Nou. On Tuesday evening, the club claimed the agreement will ‘bring football and music together like you’ve never seen before’.
Last year, Spotify owner Daniel Ek confirmed his intentions of buying Arsenal – the club he supports - from Stan Kroenke. Despite billionaire Ek preparing a second bid of over £2billion to buy the Gunners having had £1.8billion offer rejected, club owner Kroenke ruled out a deal.
The Swede is a boyhood Gunners fan and his interest in buying the club surfaced following the Super League debacle in April last year when fans’ frustrations against Kroenke spilt over. However, such a move never came to fruition and Spotify have now closed a landmark sponsorship agreement with Barcelona, who had been seeking a sponsor to replace Rakuten.
The Japanese e-commerce giant previously had a four-year shirt sponsorship agreement with the club in 2017 worth £47million per season. They agreed on a one-year extension to that agreement last year, but on the vastly reduced terms of £25million for the campaign. It has not been confirmed how much the new agreement with Spotify is worth to the Catalan club. Ek built his wealth from the creation of Spotify and his net worth is said by Forbes to be in the region of $4.4 billion.
The original partnership with Rakuten was struck in 2017 with the business relationship beginning after Rakuten president Hiroshi Mikitani had dinner with Barca defender Gerard Pique and his wife Shakira in San Francisco back in 2015. However, the relationship turned sour in July last year when a video surfaced of high-profile Barca players appearing to mock Asians while on a 2019 tour to the Far East.
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The club have described the new relationship with Spotify as ‘giving a global stage to players and artists at the Spotify Camp Nou Stadium, and building new opportunities to connect artists and players with fans around the world’.
Alex Norström, the Chief Freemium Business Officer of Spotify, explained to Barcelona’s website : “We could not be more thrilled to be partnering with FC Barcelona to bring the worlds of Music and Football together. From July, our collaboration will offer a global stage to Artists, Players and Fans at the newly-branded Spotify Camp Nou. We have always used our marketing investment to amplify Artists and this partnership will take this approach to a new scale. We’re excited to create new opportunities to connect with FC Barcelona’s worldwide fanbase.
“Spotify’s mission is to unlock the potential of human creativity, supporting artists to make a living off their art and connecting with fans. We believe this partnership creates many opportunities to deliver on this mission in unique, imaginative, and impactful ways.”
Barcelona president Joan Laporta added: “We are very proud to announce a pioneering alliance like this with a world-renowned organization like Spotify. This partnership will allow us to continue to bring the Club closer to its fans and make them feel, even more, part of the Barça family through unique experiences, combining two activities such as entertainment and football, making it possible for us to connect with new audiences around the world.
“It is also a union with which we continue to take steps forward in this new era that we have started, and which demonstrates, once again, the innovative character and the constant search of excellence that distinguish Barça and have made it a unique club in the world.”
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