Spotify, the popular music-streaming service with 40 million strong user base, on Monday announced a new way to stream music for free.
Leveraging its video ads for mobile and desktop that have been in limited testing since mid-June and are now rolling out, free Spotify streamers who opt-in to view short 15-30 second videos on their device will receive 30 minutes’ worth of uninterrupted, ad-free music. Spotify, which hails from Sweden, opened its mobile service to non-paying users in December.
“Both formats are delivered in a 100 percent viewable environment and give our brand partners 100 percent share of voice,” writes the startup.
Launch advertisers include major brands such as Coca-Cola, Ford, McDonald’s, NBC Universal Pictures, Kraft/Mondelez, Nike, Sprint, Target and Wells Fargo.
They’ll start testing the video ads in the fourth quarter of 2014 with a limited number of brands, extending them to all advertisers in the first quarter of 2015.
Here’s a quick look at Spotify video ads.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5yxijE3TuE
Visit the Spotify for Brands websiteto learn more.
Despite the 40-million-people user base, only ten million Spotify accounts are subscriptions. Paying customers receive unlimited, ad-free streaming on both desktop and mobile, in higher quality, in exchange for asubscription fee of ten bucks per month.
Spotify’s audience is highly engaged. According to an internal April 2014 survey, each user spends on average 146 minutes a day listening to his or her Spotify tracks across multiple desktop and mobile devices.
Spofity for iPhone and iPad isavailable free in the App Store.
