With an ever-growing number of subscribers, Spotify continues to prove its worth, and the introduction of a new ad format could turn it into an advertising powerhouse.
The company has introduced Billboard (popular among desktop users) to its mobile app, which presents display ads across both iOS and Android devices with a system called Overlay Mobile. It basically pops up ads as a large screensaver when users return to Spotify after long periods of inactivity, providing whopping 100 percent viewability.
Mobile is a huge target for the music streaming service, considering that 65 percent of its overall audience listens using these devices. Additionally, users spend up to 148 minutes per day listening to their favorite tunes, which is nearly a half-hour rise from the year before.
“There are very few mobile platforms that have this level of a highly engaged audience,” said Jeff Levick, chief revenue officer for Spotify, per AdWeek. “And not just a high engagement, but an attractive audience of 18-to-34 year olds and actually reaching them at that real-time, interest-based level.”
The company is working alongside data management group Krux to add audience segments for the app, with over 100 to choose from. This will help nail down first-party data across various groups, from sports enthusiasts to fitness fans and other audiences, allowing for better opportunities to set up key advertisements.
“A playlist really is a representation of a moment,” Levick noted. “People listen to curated playlists around the use case of what they’re doing.”
Levick also noted how the site has grown over the past year. In addition to its ad business showing a 100 percent leap, the site has now reported 30 million paid subscribers, alongside 70 million concurrent users. Daniel Ek, CEO and founder of Spotify, tweeted about the feat earlier this week.
We have 30 million @Spotify subscribers, but none of them are in Cuba … yet. So cool to see Cuba opening up! https://t.co/nZa67f0l8U
— Daniel Ek (@eldsjal) March 21, 2016
It’s a huge growth from the ten million subscribers it had in 2014, and those numbers should continue to rise once it launches in more international markets. That’s music to the ears of marketers and subscribers alike.
