Spotify is one of the world’s most popular music streaming services and it’s free. Well, sort of free. The company does run both audio and video ads on the platform to help pay for the content users consume. Now, Spotify is actively testing a feature that would allow users to skip as many ads as they’d like. As of now, users can’t skip ads at all so this feature is the polar opposite of that.
The company believes that allowing unlimited ad skipping would help ads get better. As the ads get better, the customer is more likely to not skip the ad and actually listen to it. That’s the hope anyway.
“Our hypothesis is if we can use this to fuel our streaming intelligence, and deliver a more personalized experience and a more engaging audience to our advertisers, it will improve the outcomes that we can deliver for brands,” Lee says. “Just as we create these personalized experiences like Discover Weekly, and the magic that brings to our consumers, we want to inject that concept into the advertising experience.”
The new feature is being called, “Active Media.” Spotify is gambling on this and hoping that their algorithim is strong enough to deliver ads people actually want to consume. Some advertisers are actually excited about “Active Media.”
Sam Kang, VP of media and acquisitions at Dollar Shave Club, says the company has been increasing its ad spending with Spotify, which it considers “one of our key pillars in our marketing.”
Kang was unaware of Spotify’s efforts to let consumers skip unlimited ads but says he welcomes the idea. “As an advertiser, I love it,” he says. “As a user, I love it, too.”
Currently, the feature is being tested in Australia but the company does want to expand to other markets.
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[button link=”http://adage.com/article/digital/spotify-letting-listeners-skip-ads/314562/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: AdAge[/button]
