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

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.

Comments

Always been doing it

[pete6677]

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"?

Re:Always been doing it

[vux984]

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.

Re:Always been doing it

[saloomy]

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?

Re:Always been doing it

[Mr. Slippery]

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.

Re:Always been doing it

[serviscope_minor]

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.

Well bless their heart.

[davmoo]

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!

Usernames too

[Anonymous Coward]

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"

Re:Nothing is free

[TheGratefulNet]

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.