Spotify leans on podcasts for a video advertising push

The news: Spotify is expected to reach global ad revenues of $2.1 billion this year, according to a recent WARC forecast. Those findings are in line with our own: We forecast that Spotify’s global ad revenues will total $2.06 billion this year, up 13.3% from 2023.

Zooming out: Spotify has faced significant investor pressure to increase ad revenues for several years—€3.2 billion ($3.23 billion) of the company’s €3.8 billion in Q2 revenues came from subscriptions—and is basing its push into ads around podcasting.

• Still, its advertising revenues are rising, up 13% year over year in Q2 to €456 million. Podcast advertising is proving to be a stable source of growth, but Spotify is looking to drive revenue growth by using podcasts to break into other sectors.