Spotify Audio Ads Gain Reach Via Facebook

Spotify advertisers like Coca-Cola, Motorola, Reebok, and Chevrolet will be getting more distribution through the digital music service thanks to it being one of several Facebook Music launch partners. Speaking with ClickZ News, Spotify chief advertising officer Jeff Levick said his company’s audio ads will run through Spotify’s Facebook app just as they do on its free-to-use service.

Spotify users experience an audio promo every three songs, Levick said, while also seeing display ads within the music client. (Facebook users will be exposed only to audio ads.) His firm targets ads based on gender, age, location, and preferred music genre. The music service has been live in the U.S. for around two-and-a-half months. It claims 8 million worldwide users of its ad-supported service, and more than 2 million paid subscribers for its promo-free version. It hasn’t broken out users by country, though AllThingsD reports it has signed up 1.4 million U.S. users to its free product in its first month here.

“It’s early days,” Levick said. “What’s interesting about the display product is that…it’s not a cluttered environment. We are showing one ad from one brand. And the ads only surface when you are engaging in the client itself. So it’s not showing when your screen is open for hours, it’s only [an impression] when you are actively engaging in the client.”

Underscoring his “early days” comment, Levick’s been on the job at Spotify for all of nine days, after leaving AOL nine weeks ago. He’s charged with getting Spotify’s U.S. ad sales team off the ground while working on global growth as well.

Levick said the Facebook Music partnership “is not just for the U.S. [It] will continue into new markets.” On the ad sales level, he said, “We are really excited to bring this activation to more brands.”

Spotify headlined a bevy of Facebook Music partners that were announced at last week’s f8 conference. Others include Earbits, iHeartRadio, Songza, Rdio, and Slacker.