Business and Marketing

Segments can be constructed by type of music, time of day, location, or mood.

Spotify's marketing platform—Spotify for Brands—today announced a new solution called Playlist Targeting, which offers up the music streaming service's first-party data for targeting by brands. It debuts on May 1.

The new service taps into users' playlists to identify moods or activities like working out, commuting, or relaxing. Historical listening behavior is used to construct profiles, and segments are refreshed on a daily basis based on news, playlists, and users.

Playlist Targeting is part of an updated suite of Spotify Audience Targeting capabilities enabling marketers to target users on both mobile and desktop platforms. Segments can be parsed by age, gender, geography, as well as by what users are listening to at a particular time of day.

“Our global footprint in 58 countries gives brands unprecedented ways to reach streaming consumers,” says Spotify Chief Revenue Officer Jeff Levick. Company statistics show the average streamer listening for 148 minutes per day.

Business Breaking News: Can 'Near Me' Searches Make or Break Local Businesses?

If you walk down a busy city street, you're likely to see many people glancing down at their smartphones as they go. Yes, some of them are reading emails and text messages — but some are probably searching for the closest location to purchase something they want right now.

Mobile devices have changed the entire process of looking for and retrieving information, especially when it comes to finding local products and services. In a recent article on Google blog Think with Google, author Matt Lawson, director of search ads marketing for Google, called these location-specific queries "I-want-to-go" moments — instances in which consumers use mobile search to quickly find what they want in the immediate area.

"Words like 'near me,' 'closest' and 'nearby' are increasingly common across the billions of queries on Google every month," Lawson wrote. "More and more, people are looking for things in their vicinity — be it a gym or a mall, a plumber or a cup of coffee. Google search interest in 'near me' has increased 34 times since 2011 and nearly doubled since last year. The vast majority come from mobile — 80 percent in Q4 2014."

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