Streaming radio services have a strong listener base that continues to grow. They offer unique benefits and features for online advertising such as access to local, regional, and or/national audiences, targeted ads, and much more.

Music streaming apps such as Spotify, Pandora and iHeartMusic can be accessed from different devices, but most listeners access these apps from their mobile devices. 

For advertisers looking to reach people on the go or listening to streaming services from their phone, this mobile audience is a gold mine! 

The two largest music streaming services, Pandora Radio and Spotify, offer ad-supported options with the total number of mobile app ad-supported minutes each month exceeding over 100 billion minutes (Spotify with 57.7. billion and Pandora 45.6 billion). Also, free ad-supported listening accounts for around 77% of the total number accounts (from 2019 and early 2020).

No matter your radio advertising budget, we can help you get started running ads on these and other local radio streaming devices. We’ve highlighted the three most popular streaming services below…

  1. Spotify. With more than 300 million active users across the world each month, Spotify offers both ad-supported and subscription-based ad-free memberships. Spotify tends to reach a younger demographic, with about 61% of users ranging from age 18 and 34. It allows you to reach interest-based audiences including the fitness enthusiasts, new parents, commuters and other specific audiences.

Advertising capabilities include:

  • Country, city or DMA targeting based on users’ Internet Protocol (IP) address
  • Targeting based on age and gender, language genre, playlists and more
  • Sponsored session: mobile and tablet offered 30 minutes of ad-free listening
  • Audio: served during commercial ad break, 30-second ad every 15 minutes, 1 destination URL to be used
  • Display/clickable ads: 100% visible and will not pop up if Spotify is minimized, leaderboard ads only on desktop
  • Video takeover: companion display unit during commercial ad breaks, desktop only, 100% share of voice and viewable.
  1. Pandora. The largest streaming service in the U.S., Pandora is connected to more than 2,000 homes and 200+ car models. 90% of listeners stream on mobile devices and 10% via home connected devices. They offer ads that come with a companion tile or banner, dynamic ads that can be personalized based on genre of music, weather, location and more, and sequential ads that build awareness and continue to drive action. Pandora also offers video and display ads. 

Advertising capabilities include:

  • Targeting based on age, gender, demographics, state DMA or MSA
  • Additional targeting based on county, zip code, music genre and audience on display or audio
  • Display banners: standard web and mobile banners, web/mobile/tablet ads
  • Audio: web/mobile/tablet/connected home or car, concurrent display branding on web, mobile and tablet offers increased engagement compared to just radio
  • Video: pops up during a station change or song skip, a full screen experience
  1. iHeartRadio. iHeartMedia Broadcast radio reaches more people every month than Google or Facebook and increases brand awareness up to 68%. It has 144 million registered users and reaches over 1,800 radio stations and 280,000 podcasts. The audience age demographic is also distributed evenly with the smallest between ages 13 and 24 and the largest ages 55-64 (23% of listeners). 

Advertising capabilities include:

  • They do not offer an ad-free subscription, so you’ll never miss your audience
  • Targeted ads using their algorithm and built within their AdBuilder
  • National opportunities to advertise on-air, online and during live events

On-demand listening only continues to grow, with Neilson reporting that on-demand music streams exceeded 500 billion in just the first half of 2019 (resulting in a 31.6% year-over-year growth). 

This is an exciting, new, growing and thriving digital platform that we are helping expand for our clients.

Ready to get started?

Call our office today to learn more about running your digital ads on these and other music streaming apps!