Spotify striving for advertising without ads

Spotify striving for advertising without ads

April 24, 2012

 

April 24, 2012

 

Spotify striving for advertising without ads

WRITTEN BY

Tony Hallett
Managing director

Tony set up Collective Content in 2011 so brands can more easily become publishers and tell stories. This built on 15 years in media, from reporter to publishing director at Silicon Media Group, CNET Networks and CBS Interactive.

Interesting piece today in the consistently good Digiday – Spotify chief revenue officer Jeff Levick was talking about ads on the platform.

Or rather, he was talking about working with the types of companies many in media would call advertisers. Here’s the quotation:

We don’t really want to offer just straight advertising. If our CEO had his way you wouldn’t see ads at all. The way we think about advertising on Spotify is communicating through content, whether that’s an audio experience, or a great app. That’s where we see the future of ads on Spotify; understanding the content itself in order to successfully message to consumers.

I love the idea that CEO Daniel Ek has a pure, ad-free vision. That might be horse crap, of course. But I’m inclined to believe they – as a smart company – know there is a better way than traditional display units etc..
Lord knows there has to be a better alternative to the sub-radio standard ad breaks in the free version. (I used to be a premium subscriber but have since switched to rival Deezer, which I’m pretty happy with, since you ask.)

I think I know what Levick means when he says “understanding the content itself in order to successfully message to consumers”. The reason this is even a post on CC:UK is because the statement points to a world where content and product (yours or a third-party’s) can be indistinguishable.

Expect (more) interesting things from Spotify.

Follow us on Twitter – @ColContent
Need to know about events? Buy the e-book, Everything In Moderation: How to chair, moderate and otherwise lead events, by Collective Content (UK) founder Tony Hallett from Amazon.co.uk.

Top