Music streaming service Spotify will begin rolling out video advertisements to mobile users. This will only affect those using the service for free, and thankfully the ads will not automatically start playing on tablets or smartphones; instead it will ask users to opt into watching the advertisement in exchange for blocks of uninterrupted listening time.
Spotify has been trialing limited runs of the video ads since earlier this year, and it was only a matter of time before it decided to roll it out. The surprising move is that the company has decided to launch it first on mobile, instead of the more established desktop users. Spotify’s chief business officer Jeff Levick told Ad Age that mobile users are the fastest growing traffic for Spotify, and that is where it is putting the majority of its effort into innovating.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5yxijE3TuE
The advertisements will ask users to watch a 15 to 30 second long video in exchange for 30 minutes of premium listening. Essentially rewarding users for watching ads, at the end of the time period users can opt to watch another ad to keep going. Spotify had experimented with various amounts of free listening time, and settled on half an hour as the optimum time to get people to agree to click on the ad.
Video ads for desktop will eventually also appear, but without the politeness of first asking users if they want to watch an advertisement. However, video ads on the desktop will only the application is on the screen; meaning that it won’t run while minimised.
[Source: The Next Web]
