Spotify Is Now Selling Your Information To Advertisers (engadget.com)

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Spotify Is Now Selling Your Information To Advertisers (engadget.com)

Posted by BeauHD on Thursday July 21, 2016 @01:30PM from the digital-age dept.

An anonymous reader writes from a report via Engadget: Spotify is now opening its data to targeted advertising. "Everything from your age and gender, to the music genres you like to listen to will be available to various third-party companies," reports Engadget. "Spotify is calling it programmatic ad buying (Warning: source may be paywalled) and has already enabled it." The nearly 70 million people that currently use Spotify's free, ad-supported streaming service across 59 countries will be affected. The ads will be audio-based and stretch between 15-30 seconds in length. The advertisers who buy ad spots will be able to look for specific users by viewing their song picks to find the best matches for the products they're selling. Two weeks ago, China has released its first ever set of digital ad regulations that seems to all but ban ad blocking.

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Always been doing it by pete6677 · 2016-07-21 13:37 · Score: 4, Informative

I figured they were doing this all along, and just now got around to announcing it. Telemetry is how all modern web businesses make money. How else would all of these services be "free"?
1. Re:Always been doing it by vux984 · 2016-07-21 13:45 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  How else would all of these services be "free"?
  Well, one model would be to give people a sample limited service to hopefully upsell them into a paid spotify premium; that would be the classic 'how else'.
  Note that spotify says this only applies to its non-paying customers.
  But yeah, if you aren't paying for the service, this is pretty much what you should expect.
2. Re:Always been doing it by saloomy · 2016-07-21 14:37 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Really? So since you are hearing ads (and I'm assuming you a relatively young anonymous coward) you would rather hear irrelevant ads shilling restless leg syndrome aids VS cheap flights to cancun?
  
  Selling ad data to anyone is a morally bankrupt way of doing business IMHO, but you agree to all of this in the privacy policy and terms and conditions of using said service, why make the experience worse for both you and Spotify? Don't you like that free service you are using?
3. Re:Always been doing it by Mr.+Slippery · 2016-07-21 15:29 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  So since you are hearing ads (and I'm assuming you a relatively young anonymous coward) you would rather hear irrelevant ads shilling restless leg syndrome aids VS cheap flights to cancun?
  
  Can't speak for the AC, but if I can't avoid corporate mind control (a.k.a. advertising) entirely I'd like it to be as mistargeted as possible. Facebook sometimes seems to think I'm in Sri Lanka or Laos and sends me ads I can't read, that's perfect.
  
  --
  Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
  You cannot wash away blood with blood
4. Re:Always been doing it by SirSlud · 2016-07-21 15:54 · Score: 1
  
  You sell advertising. It's not always by using non-personally identifying information. That's the difference in this instance. *shrug*
  I don't know why people think companies are always making shit up. Why would they "get around to it?" If they were doing it before without telling users, they'd still be doing it without telling users.
  
  --
  "Old man yells at systemd"
5. Re:Always been doing it by serviscope_minor · 2016-07-21 22:48 · Score: 1
  
  Can't speak for the AC, but if I can't avoid corporate mind control (a.k.a. advertising) entirely I'd like it to be as mistargeted as possible.
  Ostensibly yes, but it kind of depends on the advertising. The station I listen to most mostly runs local ads exhorting me to come to Chavez Tires on Alameda, or telling me about the burrito special at Trujillo's.
  
  --
  SJW n. One who posts facts.
6. Re:Always been doing it by evilviper · 2016-07-21 22:55 · Score: 1
  
  you would rather hear irrelevant ads shilling restless leg syndrome aids VS cheap flights to cancun?
  Yes. There's nothing more annoying than hearing the same few ads OVER and OVER. I'd like the pool of ads to be as large as possible.
  It's even worse when (like most ads today) it's on a subject I at least care about, but the ad is information-free branding and puffery. When's the last time you saw a car ad that was all about lifetime costs, instead of a 30 second block of "Zoom, zoom"?
  And you know something... I might just be able to pass along info about {insert old-man syndrome} to my old-man.
  
  --
  Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
7. Re:Always been doing it by thegarbz · 2016-07-21 22:59 · Score: 2
  
  Tell me about it. I used to get ads for sexy singles, now I just get adds for penis enlargement pills and porn sites. Why can't we go back to the old way!
8. Re:Always been doing it by MitchDev · 2016-07-21 23:53 · Score: 1
  
  My iPod doesn't play ads, only the music, audiobooks, podcasts, etc that I put on it, it's great...
9. Re:Always been doing it by serviscope_minor · 2016-07-22 01:02 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  My iPod doesn't play ads, only the music, audiobooks, podcasts, etc that I put on it, it's great...
  But that requires you to put the stuff on it, which in turn requires you to know what stuff to put on it. Listening to the radio station gives me a nice selection but doesn't require either knowledge or effort on my part to hear things which are new to me.
  I mean it's not like I don't already have a bunch of mp3s, but I sometimes listen to the radio instead because it's not the same.
  
  --
  SJW n. One who posts facts.
10. Re:Always been doing it by MitchDev · 2016-07-22 01:33 · Score: 1
  
  At 100+ GBs, there's not a lot of "same"
11. Re:Always been doing it by Ol+Olsoc · 2016-07-22 01:40 · Score: 1
  
  Note that spotify says this only applies to its non-paying customers.
  I'm certain I don't believe that. Paying customers would be a much better information extraction source with higher likelyhood of buying stuff.
  
  --
  The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
12. Re:Always been doing it by smallfries · 2016-07-22 02:53 · Score: 1
  
  Paying customer don't get ads on the service. Perfectly targeted ads that are not heard would be somewhat useless...
  
  --
  Slashdot: where don knuth is an idiot because he cant grasp the awesome power of php
13. Re:Always been doing it by smallfries · 2016-07-22 02:55 · Score: 1
  
  YMMV. I had about 250GB of mp3 when I got bored maintaining / organising the collection, and for me there was a lot of "same". It would depend largely on your memory / perception of music. Since I switched over to Spotify Premium I don't hit the same problems. There are are other problems: mainly licensing issues that make things disappear or albums that have tracks missing...
  
  --
  Slashdot: where don knuth is an idiot because he cant grasp the awesome power of php
14. Re:Always been doing it by serviscope_minor · 2016-07-22 03:02 · Score: 1
  
  At 100+ GBs, there's not a lot of "same"
  Same as what? I said listening to the radio is not the same as having one's own curated collection.
  
  --
  SJW n. One who posts facts.
15. Re:Always been doing it by MitchDev · 2016-07-22 03:58 · Score: 1
  
  No control over your own library. Not acceptable.
16. Re:Always been doing it by MitchDev · 2016-07-22 03:59 · Score: 1
  
  The "same" refers to the same music over and over. the same flavor (pop, rock, metal, country, etc etc etc
17. Re:Always been doing it by Maritz · 2016-07-22 04:03 · Score: 2
  
  I'm certain I don't believe that. Paying customers would be a much better information extraction source with higher likelyhood of buying stuff.
  When you pay you don't get ads. Maybe they sell the info anyway. That'd usually be illegal in Europe (dodgy EULA nonwithstanding), but dandy-as-fuck over the states.
  
  --
  I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
18. Re: Always been doing it by Maritz · 2016-07-22 04:05 · Score: 1
  
  You are just stealing their service without "paying" by watching their ads.
  Wow, what a badass.
  
  --
  I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
19. Re:Always been doing it by Shadow+IT+Ninja · 2016-07-22 04:09 · Score: 1
  
  Actually, I really prefer things the way they are with the political ads I'm getting being in Spanish. I'm into salsa dancing but I don't actually speak Spanish... well, I know enough to recognize what "los politicos" means but not much more than that.
20. Re:Always been doing it by Shadow+IT+Ninja · 2016-07-22 04:23 · Score: 1
  
  I think that, to some extent, this telemetry and ad targeting is a sort of arms race. People only have so much money you can influence them to spend one way or another. Unless we set some limits, it's a race to the bottom to see who is best at invading people's privacy. From the point of view of the marketers, it's not really that they need the absolute best information on the potential customer. They just need better information then competing marketing firms have. Of course, it's important to point out that the sale of information can be for purposes other than targeting ads. I'm sure they will sell to anyone who will pay. This could be someone doing research, state and local law enforcement, foreign intelligence agencies, etc.
21. Re: Always been doing it by thundercattt · 2016-07-22 04:26 · Score: 1
  
  My Android is like that too. Once I installed bigtincans adfree. I don't get Spotify ads. It simply skips a song.
22. Re:Always been doing it by mschwanke97402 · 2016-07-22 04:46 · Score: 1
  
  YMMV. I had about 250GB of mp3 when I got bored maintaining / organising the collection, and for me there was a lot of "same". It would depend largely on your memory / perception of music. Since I switched over to Spotify Premium I don't hit the same problems. There are are other problems: mainly licensing issues that make things disappear or albums that have tracks missing...
  And there we have him folks. The ideal media consumer. Too lazy to acquire and organize his own music collection. He would much rather rent the music by the month (or let us sell his data and advertise him to death).
  How much longer before we rent our computer software by the month, oh right, its already happening. Our TV, check. Computer games, in the works...
23. Re:Always been doing it by Ol+Olsoc · 2016-07-22 05:59 · Score: 1
  
  Paying customer don't get ads on the service. Perfectly targeted ads that are not heard would be somewhat useless...
  So paying customers do not give Spotify any personal information? I don't particularly care, but if you give any commercial outfit doing business on the internet any personal information, they are monetizing your info in some way.
  
  --
  The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
24. Re:Always been doing it by Ol+Olsoc · 2016-07-22 06:01 · Score: 1
  
  I'm certain I don't believe that. Paying customers would be a much better information extraction source with higher likelyhood of buying stuff.
  
  When you pay you don't get ads. Maybe they sell the info anyway.
  Much info to be sold, even if you aren't getting ads.
  
  --
  The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
25. Re:Always been doing it by serviscope_minor · 2016-07-22 06:14 · Score: 1
  
  The "same" refers to the same music over and over. the same flavor (pop, rock, metal, country, etc etc etc
  On no, the station I listen to has both kinds of music.
  
  --
  SJW n. One who posts facts.
26. Re:Always been doing it by serviscope_minor · 2016-07-22 11:12 · Score: 1
  
  No, country AND western.
  
  --
  SJW n. One who posts facts.
27. Re:Always been doing it by smallfries · 2016-07-22 19:56 · Score: 1
  
  Lazy?
  I take it that your time is not worth very much money. Penny-wise and pound foolish, eh?
  
  --
  Slashdot: where don knuth is an idiot because he cant grasp the awesome power of php
28. Re:Always been doing it by smallfries · 2016-07-22 19:57 · Score: 1
  
  I doubt it. The name and address are in a public registry where I live and I doubt they are sharing the credit card number.
  
  --
  Slashdot: where don knuth is an idiot because he cant grasp the awesome power of php
29. Re:Always been doing it by Ol+Olsoc · 2016-07-23 13:59 · Score: 1
  
  I doubt it. The name and address are in a public registry where I live and I doubt they are sharing the credit card number.
  Well then, I'm 100 percent certain that you are correct. Thanks for the clarification.
  
  --
  The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Spotify Is Now Selling _Customer_ Information by Fly+Swatter · 2016-07-21 13:39 · Score: 3, Informative

These headlines are so assuming. Your this. Your that. I am not a customer of Spotify, so they are not. I hope.
1. Re:Spotify Is Now Selling _Customer_ Information by Anonymous Coward · 2016-07-21 16:50 · Score: 1
  
  You are so assuming. Customer this. Customer that. I am a paid customer of Spotify, free users are not. Only their information is being sold.
2. Re:Spotify Is Now Selling _Customer_ Information by byornski · 2016-07-21 17:47 · Score: 1
  
  And that the actual paying customers of spotify are not being affected. This sounds like FUD. Perhaps we should all use itunes now?
3. Re:Spotify Is Now Selling _Customer_ Information by Anonymous Coward · 2016-07-21 22:41 · Score: 1
  
  Actually as a paying member of Spotify, I am a customer of theirs and they provide a good service.
  Shockingly when I used their free service, I paid by listening to their adverts. Is it so terrible if those adverts are targeted to things I'm more likely to be interested in.
4. Re:Spotify Is Now Selling _Customer_ Information by thegarbz · 2016-07-21 23:00 · Score: 2
  
  If you ever use that quote you failed business school and probably think the entire world is black and white too.
  Grow up.
5. Re:Spotify Is Now Selling _Customer_ Information by MitchDev · 2016-07-21 23:57 · Score: 2
  
  Screw streaming, just get a portable player and put you files on it, no ads
6. Re:Spotify Is Now Selling _Customer_ Information by bluefoxlucid · 2016-07-22 00:49 · Score: 1
  
  It sounds like FUD because the article describes Spotify selling targeted ad spots, but there's not much value in just dumping the user's data to every customer buying ads. They'd need an expensive data engineer to come up with all kinds of statistical analysis methods to categorize and analyze that data, and then decide what to do.
  It seems more likely Spotify is selling ads based on aggregate statistics. "We have 46 million teenage-college students listening to Bieberpop, and 2 hundred listening to Nickelback; it's $150,000 for a Bieberpop spot."
  
  --
  Support my political activism on Patreon.
7. Re:Spotify Is Now Selling _Customer_ Information by Shadow+IT+Ninja · 2016-07-22 04:37 · Score: 1
  
  I don't know about Spotify, but Facebook is violating the privacy of people who are not their customers. They build facial recognition profiles of everyone in photos uploaded to Facebook, just in case the non-members might join some day. Their facial recognition database is, of course, far too valuable to just use in-house. I'm sure they plan to sell access to federal, state and local law enforcement as well as foreign agencies and companies.
Comment removed by account_deleted · 2016-07-21 14:01 · Score: 1

Comment removed based on user account deletion
Nothing is free by grumpy-cowboy · 2016-07-21 14:07 · Score: 1

Period.

--
Will $CURRENT_YEAR be the year of the Linux Desktop?
1. Re:Nothing is free by Gravis+Zero · 2016-07-21 15:18 · Score: 1
  
  Nothing is free, Period.
  How much do you pay for your daily sunlight, air and gravity?
  
  --
  Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
2. Re:Nothing is free by TheGratefulNet · 2016-07-21 15:29 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  How much do you pay for your daily sunlight, air and gravity?
  I'm somewhat large, and so I actually get a rebate from my gravity bill.
  
  --
  
  --
  "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
3. Re:Nothing is free by codeButcher · 2016-07-21 20:34 · Score: 1
  
  How much do you pay for your daily sunlight, air and gravity?
  I'm somewhat large, and so I actually get a rebate from my gravity bill.
  No, dear fellow mom's basement dweller. All those sunlight units you never use, as well as the portion of air credits unused due to the stuffy atmosphere down there, are actually carried over to your gravity balance (after "administrative" debits, of course).
  
  --
  Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
4. Re:Nothing is free by serviscope_minor · 2016-07-21 22:27 · Score: 1
  
  Yes things are free.
  There's this peculiar definition of "free" which has been cropping up here a lot recently which is entirely at odds with how just about everyone else uses the words. Under the definition, a tenner on the floor is not free money because you had to take time to pick it up and so there's some opportunity cost associated.
  The (streaming) radio station I like listening to is entirely free, in that I don't have to pay anything to listen to it, just like I could bick it up for free on any FM receiver when I was in range of the broadcasting tower.
  It's free as in I don't pay anything for it.
  
  --
  SJW n. One who posts facts.
5. Re:Nothing is free by mjwx · 2016-07-22 08:00 · Score: 1
  
  How much do you pay for your daily sunlight, air and gravity?
  I'm somewhat large, and so I actually get a rebate from my gravity bill.
  Yes, but the GP's mass is so great, he generates his own gravity.
  
  --
  Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Well bless their heart. by davmoo · 2016-07-21 14:14 · Score: 4, Insightful

You mean there are actually people who think Spotify gives away free music out of the goodness of their heart and a desire to make the world a better place, expecting nothing in return? How cute!

--
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
1. Re:Well bless their heart. by saloomy · 2016-07-21 14:38 · Score: 1
  
  Even if they did, the RIAA .... nuff said.
Usernames too by Anonymous Coward · 2016-07-21 14:16 · Score: 5, Informative

They also sell your username if someone higher on the social ladder wants the one you're using.
Hey, maybe that's how they can finally monetize Slashdot. I'll put up $5 for "CmdrTaco"
1. Re:Usernames too by rizole · 2016-07-21 22:23 · Score: 1
  
  Give me $5 and I'll take "CoyboyNeal"
I blocked the ads with privoxy by Anonymous Coward · 2016-07-21 14:18 · Score: 2, Informative

It works system wide.
Unsurprising by Flownez · 2016-07-21 14:39 · Score: 1

This seems to be almost a Darwinian step in evolution for online data/service providers. I'm sure Spotify is only doing this to survive in the perilous digital wild.
Re:The almighty GOOG does it too. by Aighearach · 2016-07-21 15:28 · Score: 2

Nope. Google actually is the ad company, so instead of selling information to an ad company, they just keep it, and sell ads.
Good luck with the gender thing. by tlambert · 2016-07-21 15:44 · Score: 2

Good luck with the gender thing.
Most 56 year old FBI agents show up as 12 year old girls.
Bully for them by codeButcher · 2016-07-21 20:35 · Score: 1

Too bad (harhar) the "service" isn't available in my locale.

--
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
Cough up some $$$ or deal with it. by moeinvt · 2016-07-22 00:28 · Score: 2

Remember, when you're using a "free" service, you're the product, not the customer, so don't complain when the company sells its product(users, or at least their eyes and ears) to its customers.
It's not exactly hard to find deals and discounts for Spotify Premium either. Six months free, $99 for the first year, etc. I think they also offer a student rate of $4.99 per month or something.
I love Spotify. Even the full $10 per month is worth it to get the full spectrum of music and avoid any annoying ads.
Not selling by Isao · 2016-07-22 03:10 · Score: 1

AND... an update to the Engadget story says they're not selling it. Presumably it's being used in their in-house ad system. All better now?
The article is completely misleading by ayhanap · 2016-07-22 04:14 · Score: 1

Letting ad givers to target potential audience using some of the customer information like age, gender etc. does not mean selling data or compromising personal data. As what I get from the post, ad givers will not get specific user information they just inform spotify that I want my ads to be heared by only females, because I my product has no use among men.
A New Twist by mschwanke97402 · 2016-07-22 04:58 · Score: 1

You get what you pay for
Has become:

If you didn't pay for it they get you!
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