Snapchat reportedly partnering with Spotify, Comedy Central, others for new ‘Discover’ service

Earlier this year, rumors swirled that Snapchat was looking to move beyond the ephemeral video and picture messages that defined the service and move into full-on content (and advertising) distribution with a new “Snapchat Discover” feature. The service was believed to launch in November, and now Digiday has uncovered more details about the new feature: it looks like Snapchat is planning to partner with online media companies like Spotify, Vevo, and Buzzfeed as well as more traditional outlets like Comedy Central, CNN, and ESPN.

As we heard in the summer, this new section will serve a variety of media, including videos, music, and full articles to Snapchat users. But while Discover would mark a pretty bold move for Snapchat, the app’s origins in disappearing messages will be reflected here — Digiday says that the Discover content will have a limited shelf life to keep users checking back frequently.

This would mark the latest foray from Snapchat into content that isn’t sent directly between friends — earlier this year, Snapchat started building “stories” for events in which users could contribute videos and pictures to a stream that anyone could view, for a limited time of course. And with Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel recently confirming that ads would soon come to the service, the new Discover feature seems as likely a place as any for advertising to start popping up.