Spotify launching 12 new video series focusing on music and communities

Spotify, one of the biggest music streaming services in the world, is branching into video and offering subscribers 12 new series focused on original, exclusive performances.

While some of the series will focus on interviews with different artists in a variety of venues around the world, others will include live performances from the Spotify office (think NPR's Tiny Desk series), according to Variety.

One series called "Focus On..." will collect the usage data from subscribers in a specific city or town to figure out which artist or band is trending. Once the data is collected and examined, Spotify will bring a popular artist to that city, with the goal of the series to highlight the different taste of music listeners across the United States.

Mogul Russell Simmons (founder of Def-Jam Records), writer-director Tim Robbins and musician T-Bone Burnett will also all have their own series. Back in March, Spotify brought on VH1 president Tom Calderone to help curate the different series. Calderone told Variety that he understood listeners wanted a more intimate experience, which often disappeared when streaming music, and would use the video series to reconnect artists with the audience embracing their work.

Spotify's new video series comes at a time when subscriber-based digital video streaming seems to be the next step for a number of companies, including YouTube. The shows will be made available to both those who use the basic, ad-based service and Spotify Premium (which runs $9.99 a month). The shows will appear first for users in the U.S., Germany, and the U.K., but there's no word on when they'll premiere. A break down of each individual series can be seen here.