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Paris-based music streaming service Deezer has partnered with music advertising platform Feature.fm to let artists promote their work as sponsored content within the free Deezer app.
The partnership will expand Deezer’s ad revenue potential and give artists unprecedented exposure with ads that (ideally) don’t detract from the platform’s listening experience:
- Giving artists exposure to potential new fans. Feature.fm’s service melds music discovery with advertising. Artists are able to deliver their songs to targeted audiences. This can help them connect with new music fans, and gives artists added exposure.
- Encourage artists to add their music to Deezer. For artists, standing out music streaming platforms can be difficult given the sea of content that already exists. Deezer has 40 million songs in its catalog – 10 million more than each of Spotify and Apple Music. But the ability to advertise their songs is an added incentivize for artists to sign on to the streaming service.
- Creating a seamless ad experience for listeners. Feature.fm’s song ads are placed natively amid a user’s listening session. Ideally, the song being advertised will be additive – rather than discordant – with the music that the user is listening to, providing a more pleasant experience than the average radio voice-over ad.
- Boosting ad revenues in the process. Sustaining free-tier music services with advertising alone is arduous. Spotify, for instance, generates 10% of its revenue from ads, and free users make up 60% of its user base. The rest of its revenue comes from its premium accounts.
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