The music platform is well-known for its annoying, high-pitched ads that creeps us when the premium runs out. Those ads have terrible jokes, haughty storylines and often keep repeating the same narrative in male and female voices.
Spotify‘s advertisements aren’t always correctly targeted to the user. It has a working AI that gathers data on the user, including our musical preferences, but the ads are almost always generic. For instance, a person who primarily listens to hip-hop would receive an advertisement for a playlist of bollywood tamasha. As a result, the user experience becomes subpar because the adverts seem unnecessary and invasive.
The fact that Spotify’s advertisements frequently target the incorrect demographic has also been brought up as a problem. After gathering all the data during sign up, including direct links to our facebook or google profiles, the app disappoints when it comes to customer profiling. For instance, despite having a family account, a parent can still receive an advertisement for a concert that is inappropriate for kids. As a result, the user may get perplexed and frustrated, and the marketed brand may suffer.
Now, it’s definitely a strategy to push annoying ads that take longer than 30 secs and multiple ones too, before moving to the next song, ultimately for users to take premium and pay for listening. But the question remains, why would a user feel the need to stay on the app when the ads targeted at them are just simply contrasting to what they pay for and listen to? There are several music apps on the market with simply excellent music recommendations, catered especially for the user, including the playlists pushed as ads. You find beautiful niche music according to your taste and that makes you want more services from the app. You feel a sense of satisfaction for having chosen the app for your musical enjoyment, which is not the case with Spotify.
In conclusion, Spotify’s re-marketing initiatives have drawn a lot of criticism for their misdirection of advertisements, lack of customer profiling and dissatisfying user experience. Spotify must definitely address these problems and enhance its remarketing initiatives, and give their customers a better user experience.
