14 DAY TRIAL // Spotify fans who use the free service made available by the company will soon be making some money for the streaming service, since a few video ads will be delivered to them.
The content comes from Spotify for Brands, which is the advertising side of the company that generates a good slice of revenue by delivering ads to the non-paying users.
The first ad unit is for mobile users alone and lets people opt in to watch a brand-sponsored video spot of up to 30 seconds in exchange for 30 minutes of uninterrupted music, free of ads. This isn’t just a way for Spotify to reach nonpaying users, but also for brands to reach a large number of people.
It is estimated that, out of the 40 million users Spotify has, 30 million don’t pay the company a dime, which makes such ad tools that much more important.
The second video ad product the company has come up with targets desktop users only. Called “Video Takeover,” a sponsored video ad break will affect users of the free service. Basically, it’s pretty much the same as all the audio ads that you get while listening to the service, but with a video. Since you’re probably doing something else on the computer while listening to Spotify, you will probably not even notice it.
Spotify brought in a lot of big names
“These new video ad units give us the opportunity to be a small part of people’s everyday passion for music and create better experiences across Spotify. Spotify are great partners in helping us execute new ways of connecting with people on their platform leveraging data, intelligence and creativity to bring a little refreshment to an already uplifting experience with music,” says Ivan Pollard, senior vice president of Connections at The Coca-Cola Company.
Spotify for Brands has a few launch partners, including Coca-Cola, Ford, McDonald’s, NBC Universal Pictures, Kraft/Mondelez, Nike, Sprint, Target, and Wells Fargo. The company boasts that they’ll be able to reach a highly engaged audience that spends about 146 minutes per day listening to Spotify tracks across multiple devices.
Spotify’s Chief Business Officer, Jeff Levick, has said that the company’s audience is incredibly engaged, so delivering an advertising experience will only enhance their time spent on Spotify and connect them to the music and brands they love.
Users will argue that they’re not exactly fans of watching advertising videos, but then again, we’re talking about the free version of the service, so people can’t really complain.