Spotify Launches Programmatic Audio Ad Buying Globally

Spotify, the music-streaming service, rolled out a global ad-buying feature Wednesday that lets advertisers buy 15- and 30-second audio spots that target Spotify’s over 70 million non-paying users. The Swedish company will also give advertisers access to demographic data it collects from its users, including their age, gender, location, language and of course, their playlists.

If you are an advertiser, you have reason to cheer. Spotify has partnered “with three of the largest and most established platforms in the programmatic space — AppNexus, Rubicon Project and The Trade Desk” — to create an online “real-time bidding environment.” The programmatic space platforms, or online advertising companies in simple words, will allow advertisers to customize their audio spots for listeners in real time, depending on, for example, whether they are commuting, exercising, partying or just chilling.

According to a press release by Rubicon Project, the “advertising spots are available across Spotify’s multi-channel/screen offering through sponsored play, individual and national playlists, and podcasts.”

In another statement, by AppNexus, regarding the new feature, “there were 208 billion on-demand music streams in the first half of 2016 ... and $2.4 billion in revenue in 2015.”

If you are a Spotify user, you may have reason for concern, even though you agreed to the company selling information about you to third parties of its choosing when you installed the app, even if, like most people, you did not read through the fine print of the terms and conditions. And if you are truly bothered by it, you can always buy the ad-free subscription that costs $9.99 a month.

The new service for advertisers is available across all 59 of Spotify’s markets around the world. Spotify is looking to increase its advertising revenue as it faces increasing competition from Apple Music, which in a year since its launch, already has 15 million paid subscribers, compared to Spotify’s 30 million that it has garnered since it began in 2008.