As first reported in early February, FC Barcelona and Spotify, the global audio streaming subscription service, have sealed the ‘strategic long-term partnership’ for the Swedish company to become the main sponsor of the club and its official audio streaming partner. The deal is reportedly worth €280 million for the crisis-hit club.
The Spotify brand will appear on the front of both the Barça men’s and women’s team shirts starting with the 2022/23 season, and continue for the next four seasons. Spotify will also sponsor the training shirts. For the very first time in the club’s history, Barcelon’s stadium will be rebranded as Spotify Camp Nou.
‘The vision for the partnership is to create a new platform to help artists interact with FC Barcelona’s global community of fans,’ a statement issued by the club said.
The partnership ‘is a first-of-its-kind for the club in bringing the worlds of music and football together, 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’, it added.
The agreement also includes plans for Spotify ‘to use the club’s in-stadium promotional surfaces to present and amplify the work of artists to Barça’s global TV audience’.
Joan Laporta, Barça’s president, said that the 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’.
Alex Norström, Chief Business Officer at Spotify, said that he ‘could not be more thrilled’ to be partnering with the club, and that ‘from July, our collaboration will offer a global stage to artists, players and fans at the newly-branded Spotify Camp Nou’.
The club’s financial issues are well known and this spike in revenue will be welcomed by them. The club has been slowly restructuring its finances after picking up huge debts because of the Coronavirus pandemic and poor management by previous administrators. Barcelona couldn’t keep Lionel Messi after last season because of its financial struggles.
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