Spotify launches do it yourself platform in Canada for local advertisers

Spotify Logo (Photo: Spotify Music/Facebook)

TORONTO —  Spotify is pitching a way for Canadians to create their own audio advertising, using a technology that the multinational music-streaming business has been trying out in the United States since last fall.

Spotify Ad Studio —  a platform that allows marketers to upload full audio spots or scripts to be voiced by the company —  has been used by 1,025 U.S. advertisers to create more than 4,700 campaigns, according to the company.

The arrival of another option for advertisers comes at a time when Canada’s incumbent radio and television companies are grappling with a slow erosion of their revenue base.

Revenue collected by Canada’s private radio sector has been trending down an average of 1.1 per cent every year since 2012, according to figures compiled for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

As Corus Entertainment CEO Doug Murphy told analysts said in January, the Canadian advertising industry and marketers are evolving “their media modelling strategies to optimize the mix of TV, radio and digital media elements.”

Murphy said Corus, one of Canada’s biggest media companies, is responding by developing new technologies such as advanced audience segmentation —  a way to sell “slices” of the audience based on their habits and preferences.

“We’ve seen a remarkable upward trend in the number of advertisers within agency groups that are participating in our audience segmentation program,” Murphy said.

One of Spotify’s claims for Ad Studio is that advertisers can use the platform to use consumer music preferences as a way to target advertising —  in addition to age, sex and location.

“At Spotify, we understand people through music,” the company said in a press statement. “As a result, Spotify Ad Studio’s targeting features aren’t just based on age, gender and location, but also genres and playlists.”

The company doesn’t provide country-specific information about its audience but it has an estimated global audience of 159 million paying monthly active users and 92 million free monthly active users.

Spotify charges Ad Studio customers for each delivered advertisement, with the price affected by the targeting parameters and a $250 minimum payment in local currency.