Daniel Ek

SaaS companies are abandoning interoperability in search of more revenue; Spotify’s ad business is growing slower than expected; and sports is an upfronts winner for Disney and NBCU.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Mis-Addressed Google Chrome will reintroduce a way to disable tracking by IP address by giving users a toggle to block IP tracking. If that sounds familiar, it’s because the product works not unlike Apple’s Private Relay – and will have a similar impact on […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. On The Spot Spotify added 10 million subscribers since last year, bringing its total to 220 million paid users. Most streaming TV services would hire a troupe of trumpeters to announce that news. For Spotify, though, it isn’t enough to assure investors of […]

After experiencing a slowdown in Q1, ad spend began to rebound at Spotify in June as some markets exited pandemic lockdowns, the company said Wednesday on its Q2 earnings call. Ad spend in April and May were down 25% before inching up to a 10% decline in June. For the quarter, ad-supported revenue increased 11% […]

It’s been just a year since Spotify entered the podcasting market, and consumption is already growing like gangbusters. Podcast hours streamed on the platform grew 200% year over year, and more than 16% of Spotify monthly active users (MAUs) engage with podcasts, the company said in its Q4 2019 earnings report on Wednesday. Spotify also […]

This story previously said Spotify switched off of Google’s ad stack. A Spotify spokesperson said the company misspoke and that it has only switched off of Google’s order management system, Google Sales Manager. Friction from migrating off of Google Sales Manager in July caused Spotify to take a roughly $10 million revenue hit in Q3, […]

Spotify said Wednesday in a blog post it would acquire podcast production network Gimlet Media and podcast creation, distribution and sponsorship platform Anchor. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but sources pegged the price at roughly $230 million. If that estimate is correct, it’s the most high-value acquisition of a podcast network or platform […]

While most of Spotify’s ad-supported revenue comes from direct-sold inventory, its programmatic self-serve platform is growing fast – and now brings in 20% of total ad revenue. In Q1, Spotify reported that its programmatic revenue grew 94% in 2017 but did not break out a figure. Spotify launched its self-serve platform, Ad Studio, in the […]

The podcast industry is growing, and audio giants want a piece of it. Twenty-six percent of Americans listen to podcasts every month. These people are young and well-educated and have higher-than average household incomes, according to Edison Research. They’re also loyal and engaged, on average consuming seven podcasts per week. Ad dollars are following. Last […]

In its first earnings report as a public company on Wednesday, Spotify said its programmatic revenue was up 94% year over year. It didn’t give a figure, however. “We’re seeing super fast growth of programmatic,” Spotify CFO Barry McCarthy said on the call. “That’s coming principally from developed markets, with the US far and away […]