Spotify explores new advertising opportunities
The average customer spends 25 hours a month streaming music on Spotify. Spanning 65 markets, Spotify’s audience has, to date, created two billion playlists from a library of more than 35 million songs.
Europe is the company’s largest market with 58 million monthly active users, accounting for 37% of its total audience. Spotify claimed a 42% share of the global streaming market in 2016, boasting a 95% share in Sweden, 59% in the UK and 41% in the US.
Creating 3D sound
Exploring the possibilities of extending its ad revenue, Spotify is working on different formats including podcast collaborations with publishers like Buzzfeed, sponsored playlists and skippable audio ads.
In March, Spotify released its first 3D audiovisual advert in partnership with Lionsgate UK for the release of the horror film, Ghost Stories. Audio from the trailer was repurposed to give a 3D audio effect, creating an immersive experience. The ad received click-through rates up 50% from benchmark level.
They also rolled out a self-service Ad Studio to the UK, this allows brands to create their own Spotify adverts. The advertiser can pick its audience based on age, gender, location, activity and musical taste, they can then select mobile, desktop or both, budget and dates.
This week, Google announced that DoubleClick Bid Manager, its demand-side platform, will now feature programmatic audio ads that can be placed on Spotify, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Pandora, and Google Play Music.