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Advert trade publications shed light on the development this morning, shortly before Spotify itself confirmed the news in a release. According to the latter, advertisers using Amazon DSP can purchase Spotify audio and video spots “[f]or the first time” – thereby reaching “engaged audiences at scale.”
“By combining Amazon’s diverse audiences and first-party signals with Spotify’s high-quality content and engaged fan base,” Amazon DSP director Meredith Goldman added in part, “we’re creating new and meaningful ways for advertisers to amplify their omnichannel advertising strategies by leveraging a deeper level of insights only available through Amazon DSP.”
And in Europe, the music service disclosed a partnership with London-based ID5, which will purportedly afford advertisers “enhanced addressability for programmatic campaigns via” its “digital identity solution.”
On the podcasting front, Spotify confirmed the 2026 rollout of “private marketplace deals” for certain publishers.
“Starting in 2026,” the appropriate text reads in full, “Megaphone-hosted podcast publishers will be able to book private marketplace deals via the Spotify Ad Exchange. This will empower publishers to set up non-guaranteed deals with one or many advertisers, expanding their revenue opportunities.”
Finally, Spotify Ads Manager has integrated into the offerings of Helsinki-headquartered “AI-powered advertising technology company” Smartly to expand the relevant inventory to different buyers yet, the companies communicated.
Of course, that wasn’t a huge decrease. But it followed a 2023 WPP partnership, significant user growth, an aggressive video expansion, an AI push, the June 2024 launch of an in-house marketing agency called Creative Lab, and the April 2025 debut of a dedicated Ad Exchange.
In other words, given these and adjacent moves, the general assumption was that the long-sagging adverts segment’s revenue would jump. Furthermore, today’s announcements represent the latest in a line of post-Q2-earnings pivots from Spotify.
First, August brought the exit of global advertising head Lee Brown (who signed on with DoorDash) and head of advertising sales for the U.K. and Northern Europe Ed Couchman (who joined Netflix).
More recently, following calls to begin charging for ad-supported listening, Spotify went the opposite direction by loosening the restrictions on its free tier. The somewhat-unexpected maneuver will presumably attract users to the ad-supported side, and with new features hitting Premium, it appears that additional pricing adjustments are forthcoming.