The first is an ad for a Spotify Original podcast, Stay Free: The Story of the Clash. Yes, it's all very punk rock.
"Play Now." That's what you'll soon be muttering to Spotify if you want to check out the content featured in its voice ads, which are rolling out now for free users in the United States. If a user says anything else, a tone will sound and the mic will be turned off, continuing with the content. The ad break then continues as normal. At least to start with, these ads will only promote other services within the Spotify app, so basically, just commercials for other audio content than what you're now listening to when the ad strikes.
Spotify explained to Ad Age that the voice-enabled ads will only work if the user's microphone is enabled. That voice command activates the playlist or podcast, which also contain additional ads.
Spotify announced on Thursday that it would do limited tests of voice-activated ads in the United States.
Listeners can opt out of these types of ads within the Settings menu where they can also disable the microphone's access entirely.
The world's largest music streaming service is testing a new way of triggering ads that involves voice technology.
Voice assistants are here, people: A recent Juniper Research report found 2.5B VAs in use today - a figure expected to grow to 8B by 2023 - and Spotify isn't the only one capitalizing.
Voice control has become increasingly trendy, particularly with the rise of smart speakers, and there's one benefit to voice-enabled ads: users can accept or dismiss them without having to pick up their device. So if you're paying for the service, you won't see these ads.
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