Yahoo Partners with Spotify and iHeartRadio to Attract the Cool Kids

Can Yahoo be cool again? That’s the question fueling the company’s recent partnership with Spotify and Clear Channel’s iHeartRadio, according to Yahoo’s Chief of Strategy and Emerging Businesses Jim Heckman.

Heckman told Advertising Age, “Yahoo has become uncool.” The partnership with the digital music services is intended to attract a younger user base along with altering how the Yahoo brand is viewed, he said.

Earlier this year Yahoo also announced partnerships with CNBC and ABC News, meant to further strengthen the news and finance verticals that Yahoo has dominated for so long,

In the case of the Spotify deal, Yahoo will get a cut of revenue when its visitors click through to Spotify and sign up for an account.

According to AllThingsD, Yahoo users will see Spotify links on their site but will only be able to play music unless they’ve signed up. New Spotify users will still have to sign up for the service using their Facebook login.

With Clear Channel, Yahoo will stream the coming iHeartRadio music festival, joining Facebook and YouTube’s efforts to become live concert distributors. Clear Channel is selling sponsorships around the Yahoo live-streaming events, and Yahoo will share the revenue.

While Spotify and iHeartRadio stand to gain distribution and expanded audiences through the Yahoo partnerships, whether it can make Yahoo “cool” remains to be seen.

The partnership with Spotify relies on Yahoo’s current audience being directed to Spotify, not Spotify directing their user base to Yahoo.