Как ИИ превращает Spotify, Netflix, YouTube и TikTok в универсальные развлекательные приложения

On July 21, 2026, TechCrunch published an analysis: artificial intelligence is erasing the boundaries between music, video, podcasts and audiobooks — and pushing Spotify, Netflix, YouTube and TikTok to evolve from single-format streaming into universal entertainment apps.

Why streaming services are no longer dividing formats

For the past ten years, streaming platforms competed by each dominating its own format: Spotify in music, Netflix in series and film, YouTube in user-generated video, TikTok in short vertical clips. As TechCrunch writes, this model is becoming a thing of the past: AI simultaneously simplifies content creation, organization and recommendations, so format is no longer the defensive moat that for years justified the existence of separate apps for music, video or audiobooks.

A universal entertainment app, as TechCrunch defines it, is a service where the user gets music, video, podcasts and audiobooks in a single interface, while the recommendation system freely switches them between formats. The platforms' bet is not the best catalog in their niche, but the maximum of the user's time inside one ecosystem.

• TechCrunch's analysis names four key players: Spotify, Netflix, YouTube and TikTok.
• The comparison horizon is the past decade, roughly from 2016 to 2026.
• AI is changing three links in the chain: content creation, organization and recommendations.
• The piece was published on July 21, 2026.

"As AI simplifies content creation, organization and recommendations, the differences between formats blur — and

Spotify, Netflix, YouTube and TikTok are turning into universal entertainment destinations," the TechCrunch piece says.

What the platforms are already doing

All four companies in TechCrunch's analysis have been moving beyond their original format for several years. Netflix has been developing mobile games within its subscription since November 2021; Spotify added audiobooks to music and podcasts in 2022 and then bet on video podcasts. YouTube is simultaneously pushing Shorts, its music service and podcasts, while TikTok raised its video length limit from 60 seconds to 10 minutes and is experimenting with paid long-form videos. Each such step is an attempt to keep the user inside a single app without letting them drift to the neighbors.

The convergence is happening from both sides: video platforms add audio, audio services add video, and social networks add both. The closer their catalogs get, the more the outcome of the competition depends on the quality of recommendations rather than on exclusive rights to a format.

What role AI plays in this race

In TechCrunch's logic, AI works as a universal conveyor that makes it profitable to keep all formats under one roof. Recommendation algorithms have long decided what the user sees next, while generative models drive down production costs: translations, dubbing, cover art, editing and script drafts are being automated. Catalog organization — tagging, search, personalized playlists — is also shifting to models.

As a result, it becomes cheaper for a platform to add a new content type than to hold its audience in a single format. The barrier to entering someone else's niche falls: the same recommendation engine that picks songs can rank podcasts, audiobooks and short videos. That is exactly why, according to TechCrunch, the "one app — one format" strategy that worked for the past ten years no longer guarantees either growth or retention.

What this means

Competition in entertainment is shifting from formats to the user's time and attention: instead of a "music app" and a "series app," the market is moving toward a handful of super apps where AI decides what to show next. For viewers this is more convenient; for niche services it is an existential risk: they will have to either expand or find an audience that the algorithmic giants serve poorly.