Listeners to Spotify this month will have noticed a huge increase in the amount of advertisements on the audio platform in the lead up to Christmas.
 
The number of advertisers has increased too, including some who are not regularly heard on commercial radio.
 
Spotify has been pitching hard to the market as listening increased during covid and, more recently, in the lead up to the Christmas advertising period.
 
The music streaming platform has released a range of audience segment profiles and has also launched a ‘do it yourself’ style ad copy service, particularly pitching to small businesses, called Ad Studio, where advertisers  can upload copy scripts and Spotify’s in-house voices will record and produce them as audio spots.

A question for Radio Sales Departments.

Are you making it as easy as this for clients to get ads done? Are you using new methods such as one touch uploads of client briefs and copy, like Spotify? We know that radio sales and creative teams can do a much better job creating ads than self made do it yourself client written ads, but it’s also about perception. Is there a perception that radio sales methods are old fashioned and that the new streaming services are more modern?

Spotify has also studied a range of listener segments and developed listener profiles including:
 
Families

• A 39% increase in kids and family playlist streams over the past year
• 21 million minutes of streaming per month
• Late at night, there is a rise in parents streaming Comedy, R&B, Hiphop, and Electronic
• The track “I’ll Make a Man Out of You”, from the Mulan Soundtrack, was streamed every 13 seconds over the last year

Gen Z

• Gen Zs spent an average of 26 hours per month with Spotify
• Gen Z listeners like oldies too. One in five request nostalgia playlists by using the keywords ‘oldies’ and ‘throwbacks’
• 2 billion minutes were spent helping Gen Z’s to sleep, using ‘sleep moments’
• Click here to see the Spotify brochure

 
Fitness Enthusiasts

• Spotify Free users stream fitness-related playlists for 102 million minutes monthly
• Big sporting events inspire more fitness playlists (eg London Marathon caused running playlists to spike 54%)
• Fitness streaming decreases in winter, but Yoga is consistent throughout the year
• Running streams peak at 11am, just before lunch and 6pm, just before dinner

 
 
Spotify’s pitch is to get advertisers to align their product advertising with specific streams that target their particular audience segment.
 
Spotify has also tapped the covid market, saying:
 

As people adapted to this new world, so did the soundtrack of their lives. On Spotify, we saw our listeners develop new habits and behaviours. They discovered new podcasts, tuned into favourite tracks, and settled into weekday listening that felt a little like, well…the weekend.

So before you start thinking about next year, understand what changed in 2020. It might just help you connect with your audience in more meaningful ways in 2021.

The streaming service saw a 108% increase in podcast listening this year, and Spotify says “72% of listeners who listened to more streaming audio during COVID did so for screenless moments caused by screen fatigue—either for themselves or the entire family.”

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