In a major move in December 2023, đź“€Spotify, the global audio streaming giant, introduced the Spotify Audience Network to the Indian market, signaling a major opportunity for brands eager to tap into targeted podcast advertising—mainly allowing brands to connect with India’s engaged podcast audience. It also opens up new avenues for local podcast creators to effectively monetize their content.
Spotify’s Audience Network (SpAN) is an audio-first advertising marketplace that connects advertisers with podcast listeners using audience-based targeting tools1. It was launched in India in December 2023, along with four other markets2.
The launch of Spotify’s Audience Network in India is important because it allows brands to reach podcast listeners at scale across the network, while also enabling podcast publishers and creators to effectively monetise their content12. India is a significant growth market for podcasts, with over 100 million monthly active users on Spotify and a 49% year-on-year increase in podcast consumption in 20233.
The SpAN offers brands in India to precisely target podcast advertising ,tailored for audio-centric ad placement.
Arjun Kolady, Spotify’s head of sales for India, shared his perspective on this expansion, saying, “This move is the latest in Spotify’s series of investments to elevate podcast and audio advertising, allowing brands to reach these highly engaged listeners on a large scale.”
Some of the benefits that Spotify’s Audience Network offers to advertisers in India are
- Access to a large and diverse audience of podcast listeners, who are highly engaged, loyal, and receptive to ads.
- Ability to target listeners based on their interests, demographics, listening behaviour, and other parameters.
- Flexibility to choose from different ad formats, such as audio, video, and display, as well as different pricing models, such as cost per thousand impressions (CPM) and cost per completed listen (CPL).
- Measurement and reporting tools to track the performance and impact of their campaigns.
Some of the aspects that were covered about Spotify’s Audience Network in Indian media :
- The first publishers in India that will leverage the network to monetise their content through advertisers, such as Audio Pitara and Ideabrew Studios1.
- The expansion of Spotify’s investment in the advertising business and the podcast ecosystem, following the acquisition of Megaphone and Anchor, and the launch of Spotify Greenroom2 .
- The potential of podcast advertising to drive brand awareness, recall, and affinity, as well as to influence purchase decisions and consumer behaviour.
SpAN comes at a opportune time in India. Spotify’s Strategic Growth and Subscription Model In addition to launching Spotify Audience Network, the platform has also focused on improving its subscription business in India.
To increase its paid subscriber base, Spotify made significant changes, such as putting some regular features behind a paywall and limiting free users. These changes aim to motivate more users to choose the premium subscription model.
Forecasts and Market Growth The Indian music streaming industry has a lot of potential, with a projected market size of $473.60 Mn in 2023.
Moreover, experts forecast a remarkable Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 8.72% between 2023 and 2027, which will make the market reach $661.70 Mn by 2027, according to a Statista report.
Spotify’s Global Success and Future Plans Spotify Audience Network first launched in the United States in 2021 and expanded to more than a dozen global markets. India, along with Sweden, Brazil, Mexico, and Japan, now joins this innovative network, highlighting Spotify’s commitment to extend its success and foster win-win relationships between advertisers and podcast creators.
FOOTNOTES
- https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/business-of-brands/spotify-launches-spotify-audience-network-in-india-to-monetise-their-podcast-content/105651951 ↩︎
- https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/business-of-brands/spotify-launches-spotify-audience-network-in-india-to-monetise-their-podcast-content/105651951 ↩︎