Spotify Starts Testing Voice-Enabled Ads on Mobile Devices in US

Spotify today announced the launch of its new voice-enabled advertisements, that will allow the listeners to take actions on the ad’s content through verbal commands, TechCrunch is reporting. According to Spotify, the audio ads will direct listeners to a branded Spotify playlist or a podcast during the initial tests.

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The company is beginning the limited test in the US with the first voice-enabled advertisements coming from Unilever’s Axe and Spotify Studios. One ad, will direct users to the Spotify Original podcast, Stay Free: The Story of the Clash, while another will promote a branded playlist on Spotify related to a Unilever Axe ad campaign.

“We believe voice — really across all platforms — are critical areas of growth, particularly for music and audio content,” Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek told the investors earlier this week:


These voice ads will only be available to a subset of Spotify’s free mobile listeners in the U.S. during the test period, and only to those who have already enabled Spotify’s voice controls. These may have already been turned on, in those cases where the listener uses Spotify’s in-app voice assistant technology to search for music and podcasts.

Spotify says that for now, it is only focusing on content promotion within its own service.

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