Spotify's marketing strategy: From Freemium to Premium

Spotify now has around 299M users which include 138M subscribers in 92 different markets. But before 2012, all the big artists including Taylor Swift were boycotting Spotify.
How did this whole 180-degree transition happen?

The whole game has been played by the great strategic marketing team of Spotify. Let's have a look at some of their strategies:

Spotify mainly obtains a huge user base because of the freemium music service. Word-of-Mouth Marketing and Co-marketing play a significant role here too. With some thoughtful methods, Spotify is continuously successfully converting all these users into subscribers.

How? Let's see!

𝘼𝙪𝙙𝙞𝙤 𝙖𝙙𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙜𝙨:
Imagine, you listening to your favorite songs and dancing like there's no tomorrow. Suddenly, an ad starts playing. Super infuriating, right? And this is one of the biggest reasons for premium conversion. 'Stopping this annoying repetitive ad!'.

𝙂𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙪𝙢 𝙫𝙞𝙗𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙥𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙤𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙨𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣:
I would say it's clever of Brands who give a Premium vibe to Freemium users to make them feel the need. And that's what also worked for Spotify's conversion. It allows having 30 mins ad-free streaming after watching one sponsored video ad.

𝙎𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙘 𝙒𝙚𝙗𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙜𝙣:
Just go to Spotify's website. The first thing you'll notice 'Get 3 months free with some other promises like
'Enjoy ad-free music, Offline music, and Cancel anytime.'!

And just below that, 'Free Spotify, no Credit Card needed.'
Man, can they be less Persuasive?

𝙄𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝘾𝙖𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙞𝙜𝙣 𝙧𝙪𝙣:
Spotify's focusing more and more on Millennials. So, they design the campaigns accordingly. Such as 'Music Takes You Back' where songs were suggested to reckon memories. Also, 60-sec ad campaigns on shows like 'Late Night with Jimmy Fallon' to penetrate the youth market.

𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙥 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙁𝘽 '𝙊𝙥𝙚𝙣 𝙂𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙝':
Who doesn't love to share good music with loved ones? Well, Spotify also using this emotion strategically. By being Partner with another Shark in the ocean Facebook, Spotify allows its user to share the song on timeline, story, and inbox. And these all methods drive more traffic for conversion.

𝙎𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙘 𝙋𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙮:
Word of mouth marketing has always been a huge advantage for Spotify. To take this advantage to another level, Spotify launches student discount offers which not only helped them to get more users but also a whole new market for product placement.

It's just so mesmerizing to see Spotify becoming a billion-dollar company.
Moral of the research: A good strategic marketing plan always helps to do the checkmate.

#spotify #adcampaign #marketing