Have you ever ever thought of how a lot time you spend on Spotify, that’s, really contained in the Spotify app? It’s simple to get misplaced for half-hour on TikTok or Instagram, however you in all probability don’t have the identical intuition for the Swedish streaming app.
Spotify, although, is eager to remind the promoting world simply how a lot time their listeners spend really navigating the app.
A music app designed to function within the background isn’t an apparent goal marketplace for advertisers, who can be inclined to treat the app’s customers as passive or unengaged.
This might clarify why the streaming platform’s advert income is so low. Spotify made $1.85 billion from ad-supported income in 2024, a fraction of the $13.8 billion it raked in from premium subscribers.
Nevertheless, as a part of a brand new drive to spice up ad-supported income, Spotify is attempting to persuade advertisers that its listeners are something however passive.
“It’s extra nutritious… somewhat than these high-caloric, fast issues,” Alex Norstrom, Spotify’s co-president and chief enterprise officer, advised the New York Occasions in regards to the Spotify app.
Norstrom elaborated that this included the “Jam” perform, which forces listeners to show each technical and collaborative to create the perfect group playlist. He additionally pointed to listeners wanting to find extra about their favourite podcaster or settling in for an prolonged audiobook session.
“Individuals simply really feel good once they’re on Spotify,” Lee Brown, Spotify’s international head of promoting, mentioned on Wednesday. “What number of apps can say that?”
Spotify goals to develop its promoting income by rising the period of time its customers spend on the app. To that finish, the group enhanced its providing of podcasts with a video perform, making it functionally akin to YouTube.
“The extra content material customers stream, the extra promoting stock we typically need to promote,” the group wrote in its 2024 annual report.
Its technique to take action, as Brown summarized, was to pitch itself as the choice to “rotting and doom-scrolling.”
Spotify’s pitch for advertisers comes at a time when manufacturers are pondering extra deliberately about the place they publicize themselves. Elon Musk went to struggle with advertisers final yr after many pulled funding from his X platform as its content material turned extra poisonous. They started to return within the wake of the election of Donald Trump, who was closely supported by Muck.
The corporate has been extra deliberate in its message to advertisers in current months.
What Wednesday’s occasion sought to focus on was making it simpler for advertisers to make use of the platform, together with using Gen AI to energy scripts and voiceovers within the U.S. and Canada.
In November final yr, Spotify mentioned 72% of Gen Z listeners seen the app because the antidote to doom-scrolling, in keeping with findings in its Tradition Subsequent Report. The report, geared toward advertisers, indicated Gen Z listeners favored manufacturers that engaged with Spotify by creating playlists or sponsoring reside music occasions.
Spotify loved a outstanding 2024 turnaround after rounding out 2023 with its largest-ever spherical of layoffs. The corporate loved its first full yr of profitability and noticed its share worth greater than double final yr.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
