Spotify Looks to Ramp Up Ad Business
Jeff Levick, chief revenue officer at Spotify AB, remembers how the advertising side of the music-streaming business was viewed when he joined the company five years ago.
“Those people over there,” he said, waving his hands dismissively to his right. “With their banners.”At the time, Mr. Levick recalls, Spotify was viewed externally and internally as a company focused on its on-demand, ad-free music streaming product — with some perceiving its free, ad-supported business as existing simply to herd people toward signing up for subscriptions.
That’s changed considerably, Mr. Levick says. Now the company is leaning harder into advertising, adding products, partners and new staffers, he said. Last month, for example, Mr. Levick brought on Liberty Carras Kelly, a former Fox and CNN executive, as Spotify’s new head of Americas sales, as well as former Vevo vice president of commercial marketing, Danielle Lee, as Spotify’s vice president of global partner solutions.
Source: WSJ