Swedish company launches a new ad marketplace, introduces a podcast subscription, enters new markets and offers a new quality of sound
February 25, 2020
Kristina Zamostyanova
On February 22th Spotify held an online Stream On event that resulted in several interesting announcements. Audio ecosystem streaming giant aims to create becomes more and more fleshed out. Adsider elaborates on Spotify’s plans for the near future.
Audio Advertising Marketplace
The company announced a new audio advertising marketplace, Spotify Audience Network. It will allow advertisers to reach the listeners within Spotify Originals&Exclusives, podcasts at Megaphone and Anchor, and within ad-supporting tracks. The marketplace is currently in the early stages of developments — Spotify promises more news soon.
Spotify also explained that its recent acquisition of Megaphone will allow the company to scale its Streaming Ad Insertion (SAI) technology, launched in the beginning of 2020. As of now, SAI is available in the US, Canada, Germany and UK, and is set to hit new markets in 2021.
Over the past year, the company has improved SAI with Originals & Exclusives content, and is now beginning to introduce new features: audience-based buying, native advertising, and creative performance reports. Later this year, Spotify will make SAI available to Megaphone podcast publishers and leading Anchor creators.
The company will also begin beta testing of mediabanding in podcasts on the self-service advertising platform Spotify Ad Studio in the United States. This platform is currently used by advertisers from 22 countries.
New Music Quality
In 2021, Spotify will launch Spotify HiFi. The new subscription-based service will allow premium users to listen to CD-quality music in a lossless format. Initially, the service will be available only in selected markets, but it is still unknown in which ones.
HiFi will work on all devices, including speakers with Spotify Connect support. The company emphasizes that working with some of the world's largest speaker manufacturers will allow Spotify HiFi to benefit more listeners. Well-known musician and singer Billy Ailish has already approved the new function. She believes that thanks to Spotify HiFi, listeners will be able to hear music the way musicians imagined it when they created it.
Podcast Subscription
During the broadcast, Spotify officially confirmed that it will introduce podcast subscription service. The company will begin beta testing a new feature in its tool for creating Anchor podcasts this spring. Creators from the USA will be the first to publish content for paid podcasts for their most loyal fans.
According to the company's representatives, the subscription model provides a percentage of the profit for creators and Anchor, where most of the earnings will go to the podcasters. Anchor will also allow creators to determine the prices for listeners and the features the paid experience will include: for example, bonus episodes or interviews or ad-free content.
You can register and get on the waiting list.
85 New Markets
Soon, Spotify will launch its service in 85 new markets and add 36 languages to the platform. The company plans to expand to markets in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean — together they cover more than a billion people.
According to company representatives, Spotify will work closely with local creators. Free and premium plans will be available in all markets, with individual, family and student plans available in selected markets. In each of the new markets, Spotify will present a complete global catalog. The company also adds that it will constantly work with local rights holders and partners to expand the existing catalog through local offers.
Discovery Mode — інструмент для побудови аудиторії
In addition, Spotify is launching a beta version of its audience building tool. Discovery Mode allows artist teams to select the music they want to find first, including Spotify recommendations. During pilot testing, this feature helped labels achieve higher royalty payouts through enhanced detection capabilities.
And most importantly, you can start even with a zero budget.
