Spotify, the largest audio streaming service, is expanding its operations and ad business in India to cater to the country’s growing internet access, smartphone usage, and online transactions. The company sees a huge opportunity for growth and hopes to double its transacting users in India to 700 million by 2030. Although over 40% of Spotify users are premium members, the premium membership is not growing at the same rate as it was in previous years due to economic constraints. To acquire more young consumers, especially those from Bharat, Spotify has launched UPI for recurring subscriptions and free trials.
As digital audio advertising is still an emerging space, Spotify’s responsibility as a market leader only increases to help the ecosystem move forward. The company plans to continue focusing on evangelization, education, and inspiration in audio to address the challenges ahead.
During the Indian Premier League (IPL), Spotify is helping its partners understand how best to leverage the platform as part of their media mix. The platform owns the build-up to the match and the celebrations after the match, across phones, smart TVs, cars, watches, gaming consoles, and home speakers. Spotify has lined up some very interesting creative solutions and innovations for the tournament.
Spotify is currently working on an AI-enabled DJ that would be a personalized AI assistant playing music based on the user’s choice. Additionally, the company is working on NFT-enabled playlists.
Industry experts to speak at Pitch CMO Summit Mumbai 2023
On March 24th, 2023, industry experts will convene at the Pitch CMO Summit in Mumbai to share their success stories. Among the speakers is Arjun Kolady, Head of Sales at Spotify, who will discuss the music streaming platform’s decision to scale up its operations and ad business in India.
According to Kolady, Spotify has lined up “very interesting creative solutions and innovations” to excite both listeners and brands during the Indian Premier League (IPL). Although he did not provide any specific details on these offerings, Richard Frankel, the Global Creative Director of Spotify, recently shared the results of a company-funded study called “Sonic Science 2.0.” The study claimed that audio is one of the most effective media for recall value and that Spotify ads have 19% higher brand impact than all other media.
Spotify, which caters primarily to Gen Z, currently works with over 300 brands, including Visa, Samsung, OnePlus, Amazon, and Mondelez. With internet access, smartphone usage, and online transactions on the rise in India, the company sees significant growth potential. Spotify hopes to double its transacting users in India to 700 million by 2030, up from the current 350 million.
While over 40% of Spotify users are premium members who drive most of its business, the premium membership is not growing at the same rate as it was in previous years due to economic constraints. To acquire more young consumers, particularly from Bharat, Spotify recently launched UPI for recurring subscriptions and free trials. Previously, only users who had a debit or credit card were able to access a free trial.
Spotify has also announced new features for creators and fans. Frankel and Kolady will share their insights on the company’s India journey, expansion plans, and challenges at the Pitch CMO Summit.
Challenges Ahead
According to Kolady, while it has been a fantastic journey for Spotify to reach market leadership in India over the last four years, there is still much work to be done. Digital audio advertising is still an emerging space, and as market leaders, Spotify’s responsibility increases to help the ecosystem move forward. The company plans to continue focusing on evangelization, education, and inspiration in audio to address the challenges ahead.
Spotify’s Expansion in India: Insights from Richard and Arjun
As the largest audio streaming service, Spotify aims to be the trusted and capable audio companion for each of its listeners in India. The company believes that by staying focused on music fans and audio consumers, it can build for the moments, moods, and mindsets that animate their lives.
Plans for Expansion
Arjun Kolady, Head of Sales at Spotify, is determined to take audio to its rightful place in the media landscape. The company plans to grow its team to cover the market beyond its primary verticals of media, tech, and FMCG, bringing more advanced measurement and creative solutions to India this year. Furthermore, the company wants to help drive innovation and accountability through programmatic and automation.
Richard Frankel, Global Creative Director of Spotify, stresses the importance of being as relevant locally as you are globally. To achieve this, the company sometimes slows its market expansion to ensure that it can launch with repertoire and languages that are expected in every market. It also spends time building audiences and listener loyalty before asking advertisers to participate in those listener interactions. By managing expansion with these concepts in place, Spotify creates more trust and brand love, leading to longer-lasting opportunities for all of its partners.
IPL Offerings
With the excitement around the Indian Premier League (IPL) building up, Spotify is helping its partners understand how best to leverage the platform as part of their media mix. Although the actual viewing of the matches will not happen on Spotify, the platform owns the build-up to the match and the celebrations after the match, across phones, smart TVs, cars, watches, gaming consoles, and home speakers.
During last year’s tournament, there was a 113% increase in cricket-related streams on Spotify. According to GWI, 77% of Spotify free users are cricket fans, and 67% follow the IPL. Additionally, 22% of cricket fans on Spotify have participated in fantasy sports, and 71% of cricket fans on Spotify use digital payments. To excite listeners and brands during the tournament, Spotify has lined up some very interesting creative solutions and innovations.
Innovations
Spotify is currently working on an AI-enabled DJ that would be a personalized AI assistant playing music based on the user’s choice. Additionally, the company is working on NFT-enabled playlists. However, Indian users will have to wait for these innovations.
As internet access, smartphone usage, and online transactions continue to rise in India, Spotify sees a huge opportunity for growth. The company hopes to double its transacting users in India to 700 million by 2030 from the current 350 million. While over 40% of Spotify users are premium members who drive most of its business, the premium membership is not growing at the same rate as it was in previous years due to economic constraints. To acquire more young consumers, especially those from Bharat, Spotify has launched UPI for recurring subscriptions and free trials, allowing more users to access a free trial even without a debit or credit card.
Spotify’s journey in India has been fantastic, and the company has worked with over 300 brands, including media and entertainment brands, FMCG companies, tech firms and device manufacturers, fintech and travel aggregators. The company has won several awards, built strong alliances with its clients and agency partners, and grown its team. However, as digital audio advertising is still an emerging space, Spotify’s responsibility as a market leader only increases to help the ecosystem move forward. The company plans to continue focusing on evangelization, education, and inspiration in audio to address the challenges ahead.
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