Spotify eyes ad dollars as it opens up 'On Repeat' playlist to advertisers

Spotify has made its On Repeat playlist available for advertising sponsorship across 30 markets across the globe, including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, and Taiwan. This allows advertisers to own the moment end-to-end as they share their messages with Spotify Free users via display, audio and video ads. Following its Discover Weekly playlist in 2019, On Repeat is the second personalised playlist available for sponsorship on Spotify.

According to Spotify, its On Repeat feature has reached 12 billion streams globally since its debut in 2019. The personalised mix is filled with the tracks each user has streamed the most over the past 30 days, and the platform said its fans have spent over 750 million hours getting more of the songs they can’t stop listening to using the feature. It is added that in terms of listeners, Spotify's top audience for On Repeat are aged between 18 to 24 years old, followed by those aged 25 to 29 years old. The decade that most listeners want to relive was also found to be the 2010s. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out for additional information.

Founded in 2006, Spotify is one of the largest audio platform globally. According to its financial report for Q4 2020, the platform boasted a total of 345 million monthly active users and 155 million paid subscribers. In 2020, Spotify reported a revenue of approximately US$9.3bn. It is added that in order to increase its advertising revenue, Spotify seeks to increase the listening time that its ad-supported Users spend on its ad-supported Service. It will also find new opportunities to deliver advertising to users, such as through podcasts and other opportunities relating to content promotion to users.

"The more content users stream on our service, the more advertising inventory we generally have to sell. Furthermore, growth in our user base increases the size and scope of user pools targeted by advertisers, which improves our ability to deliver relevant advertising to those users in a manner that maximises our advertising customers’ return on investment," Spotify said in its 2020 financial report. That ultimately allows Spotify to better demonstrate the effectiveness of its advertising solutions and justifies a pricing structure that is advantageous for the company. Some of the brands that have tapped on Spotify advertising include Google, Calvin Klein, Snickers, LinkedIn and Volkswagen.

Spotify's move to extend advertising sponsorship to is On Repeat playlist comes one week after it acquired Betty Labs, the creators of audio-based sports social network Locker Room. This acquisition, which seemingly goes up in competition with audio app Clubhouse, is said to build on Spotify's work to create the “future formats of audio” and will accelerate Spotify’s entry into the live audio space. 

In the coming months, Spotify said it will evolve and expand Locker Room into an enhanced live audio experience for a wider range of creators and fans. Through this new live experience, Spotify will offer a range of sports, music, and cultural programming, as well as a host of interactive features that enable creators to connect with audiences in real time. It will also give professional athletes, writers, musicians, songwriters, podcasters, and other global voices opportunities to host real-time discussions, debates, ask-me-anything sessions, and more. This is similar to what Clubhouse offers on its app, where users can create chat rooms for discussions of various topics, while others can listen in on the conversations in real-time.  

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(Photo courtesy: 123RF)

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