Spotify giving 30 minutes of nonstop music if you watch a video ad
Though a quarter of Spotify users pay $10 a month to avoid ads, the other 30 million have to put up with them. Now, Spotify is set to roll out a new form of advertising that may ease (or add to) some of that pain: video commercials. There will be two forms: "Video Takeover" ads will be played regularly on Spotify's desktop apps, but let advertisers to buy an entire slot of time. Meanwhile, "Sponsored Sessions" will let mobile users watch short videos in exchange for 30 minutes of ad-free listening. In either case, ads will be limited to 15- or 30-seconds. It might seem odd to play TV commercials on a radio service, but Spotify pitched the idea to advertisers in June at Cannes and major players like Coca Cola, McDonald's and Ford signed on for the launch. Ad Age said that Spotify will play ads exclusively for those brands by year's end in the US, UK and six other markets. It'll roll out worldwide to any interested company in 2015.
