The popular streaming service aims to offer its 60m users a more personal experience

Music streaming service Spotify has announced it will start offering video content, as the company widens its focus beyond music.

Unveiling the changes at a company update in New York, Spotify founder and chief executive Daniel Ek said the new service would be “more personal and more useable”.

Spotify will now offer video clips, news bulletins, podcasts and more personalised playlists. A new “running” feature will use the built-in sensors in smartphones to monitor the speed a person is running at, and play songs accordingly.

ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre bringing you a deeper, richer, more immersive Spotify experience,ÔÇØ said Mr Ek.

The new service will be available to iPhone users in the US, UK, Germany and Sweden, with more markets and platforms to follow over the next few weeks.

Since launching seven years ago, Spotify has accumulated 15m subscribers across 58 countries, who pay up to £10 a month for an advert-free service.

In total, there are more than 60m active users on Spotify who have collectively created 1.5bn playlists.

The company is thought to be worth $8.4bn after recently raising $400m in funding, and its service has a catalogue of more than 30m songs, adding 20,000 a day.

Spotify’s announcement comes just weeks before Apple is expected to update the market on its new Beats-based streaming service. It also comes two months after the launch of Tidal, a global streaming music service started by rapper Jay Z that has the support of Beyonce, Coldplay’s Chris Martin and Rihanna.

Taylor Swift, one of the world’s best-selling pop singers, recently removed her albums from Spotify, arguing that its free service was undervaluing her music.