Spotify Announces Updates To Its Free Ad-Supported Service

Spotify has unveiled a new Spotify Free experience in its biggest update to the consumer experience in three years.

Speaking at a pop-up Spotify House in Sydney this morning, Danielle Lee (pictured below), Spotify’s global head of partner solutions, said the changes demonstrate its commitment to the Freemium model which is the normal entry point for consumers and their first experience of Spotify.

Danielle Lee

Lee explained, “We’ve updated this experience in a few key ways.

“First up is more personalisation from the start. Personalised playlists like Daily Mix and Discover Weekly (which use data and machine learning to deliver playlists unique to each listener) were typically only available for those who have used the service for a while (2-3 weeks).”

“This is when we can learn enough about you that we can start to predict what you might like to listen to.”

“In this new experience, from the time you sign in, you are able to identify artists and songs that you like so we can deliver personalised playlists from the start. That’s a pretty big change.”

“The second change is more control. In the old version of the free service, you could listen to a playlist in what we call ‘shuffle play’ mode.”

“You could play the playlist but you couldn’t select the specific songs you wanted to listen to and play them in the order you wanted to listen to them in. In the new experience, you can do that with 15 selected playlists. And those playlists will change regularly based on what you’ve been listening to. So it’s not the same 15 for everyone.

“The other final update is the data saving feature. This is huge as part of our growth strategy. The data saving feature allows you to reduce the amount of mobile data you’re using by 75 per cent.”

“That’s huge when we think about launching in markets where mobile data is super expensive. And people want to listen to music but don’t want to have their hit on their mobile bill.

Speaking about the updates and their relevance to brands, Lee explained, “We’re really excited about these updates and the thing that is really impressed upon me, when I think about working with brand partners, is that a more engaged consumer, a consumer that’s spending more time and feels a more personal connection to Spotify, will ultimately fuel a better ad experience.

“The more streaming intelligence that we’re able to glean, the more relevant and tailored we can make the ads, the better the value we’re able to deliver to our brand partners.”

Globally, around 65 per cent of Spotify regular listeners are using the free service that is supported by advertising.

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