Spotify outline plans for 'unique' Barcelona sponsorship

Spotify commercial director Alex Norstrom has explained the music streaming platform will be ‘more than just a sponsor’ for Barcelona because they don’t intend the new partnership to be limited to just things like logos on shirts.

Barça announced the Spotify deal, rumoured to be worth around €280m, earlier this year. The first set of new shirts with Spotify branding were released last month and the deal officially began on 1 July when Camp Nou was also renamed due to the stadium’s naming rights being included.

The Spotify logo will feature on Barcelona kits for both the men’s and women’s teams until 2026, with training kit sponsorship also in place until 2025.

Norstrom has told Mundo Deportivo that while Spotify regularly does sponsorship deals, none are of the same ‘magnitude’ as this one with Barça. It also hugely beneficial, not only to the club in terns of the much-needed financial injection, but also the brand because of new reach.

“Sport is a very important part of the culture and football is the greatest of sports. Barça is one of the biggest clubs in the world, with almost 1,000 million fans, and this agreement allows us to get closer to them,” the Spotify executive explained.

“There are very big markets like India, Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil and other countries where we want to grow. The alliance is excellent because we unite music with football. What we do with this deal is not just put the logo on the shirt.

“Everything surrounding this deal is a platform for creators and musicians to express themselves. I think this is something unique and it was one of the reasons why we wanted to make this pact.”

Norstrom added: “One of the keys to this agreement is that it wasn't just to put the Spotify logo on the shirt. One of the priorities was to do creative things with all the spaces in the Espai Barça and also on the shirt. We want it to be a platform to promote artists.”

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