Spotify Launches Private Marketplaces

Spotify-iOS-App.jpgMusic streaming service Spotify has launched real-time private marketplaces (PMPs) for its display ad inventory, making it easier than ever for brands to reach out to the services audience at scale.

The decision to create a PMP was based on demand from programmatic buying teams looking for premium display formats, and sees Spotify partner with a number of premium supply-side platforms to make its Leaderboard display format available for real-time buying.

The launch emphasised the quality of first-party data that Spotify can access, thanks to 25bn hours of listening from 75m logged-in users. This data can be used to generate psychographic, contextual and behavioural insights into personal tastes, values, emotional states, habits and more.

Spotify has packaged the best of this data into the PMP to support brands in reaching particular audiences on Spotify, with declared age and gender packages available, along with Playlist Targeting for workouts and parties, and real-time genre targeting packages.

While the programmatic exchange will initially only serve Spotifys desktop player, the company has plans to expand the offering to its mobile and connected device services in the near future.

“This is interesting, and an anticipated move by Spotify,” said Evangelos Sideras, national trader director at Media iQ. “Given the wealth of user data available it seems like a no brainer. In todays data driven world any offering that includes 100 per cent authenticated audience, first party data (with an obvious lead to a cross device solution) will always be met positively.

“Playlist targeting is a unique proposition and, overlaid with such rich data based on mood and preference, it can only complement and enhance existing audio and video buys.”