Barça home to be rebranded Spotify Camp Nou

Article posted by Coliseum, March 17^th, 2022

Image: FC Barcelona

The LaLiga team FC Barcelona (Spain) and Spotify, the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service, have reached an agreement for the Swedish company to become the Main Partner of the club and the Official Audio Streaming Partner.

The brand will appear on the front of both Men’s and Women’s team shirts beginning in the 2022-2023 seasons and for the next four seasons.

The ‘FC Barcelona’ stated that Spotify will also sponsor the training shirts beginning in the 2022-2023 seasons for the next three seasons. Spotify and FC Barcelona will be working together to create opportunities for the iconic shirt to become a space that can celebrate artistes from across the world. As part of the collaboration, for the very first time in the club’s history, the stadium will be rebranded as Spotify Camp Nou. The vision for the partnership is to create a new platform to help artistes interact with FC Barcelona’s global community of fans.

Spotify is a Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on April 23^rd, 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is the world’s largest music streaming service provider, with over 381 million monthly active users, including 172 million paying subscribers, as of September 2021.

Futbol Club Barcelona, commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça, is a Spanish professional football club based in Barcelona (Spain), which competes in LaLiga, the top flight of Spanish football.

The 99,354-capacity Camp Nou is a football stadium in Barcelona, Spain. It opened in 1957 and has been the home stadium of FC Barcelona since its completion.

The ‘FC Barcelona’ further stated that the agreement approved and signed by the Board of Directors of FC Barcelona, is subject to the ratification of the Extraordinary Delegate Members Assembly that will take place the following April 3^rd, through an electronic voting procedure. The club will soon facilitate all of the logistical details, coinciding with the public announcement of the meeting.

Within the framework of this new alliance, Spotify will become the Main Partner of the club from the 2022-2023 seasons. The long-term agreement for the stadium’s title rights begins in July 2022 and will continue over the ambitious redevelopment of the Camp Nou site, as part of the Espai Barça project which will transform the club’s facilities and environment into a world-class, new integrated Barça entertainment experience open to the City.

First-of-its-kind partnership

The partnership reached by Barça and Spotify 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 artistes at the Spotify Camp Nou Stadium, and building new opportunities to connect artistes and players with fans around the world. The collaboration also unifies the Main Partner across both Men’s and Women’s kits as part of both organizations commitment to cultivating and supporting diverse talent now and for future generations.

The Espai Barça development plan goes well beyond modernization and reconstruction of FC Barcelona’s home venue Camp Nou. In addition to increasing the capacity of the current stadium to 105,000 from circa 99,000 and completely revamping the current structure of Camp Nou, the Espai Barça project entails building a new Palau Blaugrana with a capacity of 15,000, an additional court with a capacity of 2,000, an ice rink, a new social area, a new commercial area, revamped club offices, La Masía (read FC Barcelona’s youth academy), and an additional 5,000 parking spots. This ambitious initiative has been in work for several years and is scheduled to be ready for the 2024-2025 seasons. In April 2014, Espai Barça was approved by the club’s members with a budget of $700 million.

Furthermore, FC Barcelona and Spotify will be working to use the club’s in-stadium promotional surfaces to present and amplify the work of artistes to the Blaugrana’s global TV audience. With the development of Espai Barça, Spotify is joining the club in the next chapter of its history.

The collaboration with Spotify is also part of the club’s goal to proactively seek partners who share the values and philosophy that define its brand and, at the same time, allow it to retain its status as a global benchmark, inside and outside of the playing fields, in an increasingly competitive environment.

Remarked Joan Laporta, President of FC Barcelona, “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 distinguishes Barça and has made it a unique club in the world.”

Enthused Alex Norström, Chief Freemium Business Officer, Spotify, “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 artistes, players and fans at the newly-branded Spotify Camp Nou. We have always used our marketing investment to amplify artistes 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 fan base.”

Spotify’s mission is to unlock the potential of human creativity, supporting artistes 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.”

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