Talk Bite: Is Your Brand Ready For Spotify?

Advertisers already are quite aware that music is the key to many consumers’ hearts.  Catchy singles from acts like The Black Keys and Foster the People are consistently soundtracking promos and ads across digital and broadcast channels.  With music taking such a huge role in consumers’ lives, shouldn’t marketers consider reaching their targets in their favorite listening environment?

Consumers are streaming online music more than ever.  According to a recent eMarketer report, cloud based streaming music services (including internet radio and streaming services) increased 50.5% from 2010 at 1.5 billion hours listened.  With services like Pandora, consumers are already used to waiting through an audio spot or viewing branded content surrounding music players to listen to free music.  Is it finally time for advertisers to view Spotify as a viable option to reach consumers in the online music space?

U.S. music fans waited years for the streaming music service to launch stateside, and finally got their initial taste of Spotify last July.  Spotify now has 10 million users worldwide (3 million U.S.) and is hoping marketers will soon put their products in front of its growing base.  Spotify has over 15 million songs in its catalog and the backing of many of the major record labels.  With Spotify’s integration in Facebook and April launch of the “play button,” the music service is betting that music will be even more shareable than ever.  The new feature allows users to embed their favorite playlists everywhere, from their WordPress blogs to Tumblr.

But are Spotify users seeing marketers’ ads?  An eye-tracking study reported that 100% of participants saw the large graphic ad on the Spotify start page and viewed the ad for a full four seconds.  The streaming music service recently gained a huge vote of confidence when Coca-Cola announced a global partnership.  Most details haven’t been announced, but the deal will be a flagship portion of Coca-Cola’s “Year of Music” campaign in 2013 and focus on four key pillars: global, technology, social, and a commitment to music.

Why not create a gaming unit in the Spotify application where consumers can interact with your brand in an environment where they are comfortable, while listening to music?  Imagine the “time spent” results of a branded gaming unit while the user is actively taking in the new Jack White album.  While some advertisers negotiate pricey song rights to be associated with bands like fun. or Santigold in an ad, why not have your ad displayed while a fan is streaming the entire album or creating a playlist?  While Spotify may not be for every marketer, seeing who follows Coca-Cola on this growing platform will be interesting.

Hat tip to eMarketer, Mashable and TechCrunch.