Political advertisements are disappearing from Spotify early next year, Ad Age reports.
The ad-supported tier and Spotify's original programming will no longer serve ads designed by elected officials, candidates, and organizations. Spotify didn't offer a clear explanation, but the company admitted that its technology needs to properly monitor political ads before distributing them in the United States. Elsewhere in the world, Spotify does not run any political ads.
Third-party podcasts, however, may continue rolling out episodes with embedded political ads. Spotify just reminds creators to adhere to its content policy per usual.
"At this point in time, we do not yet have the necessary level of robustness in our process, systems and tools to responsibly validate and review this content," Spotify said in a statement. "We will reassess this decision as we continue to evolve our capabilities."
Popular advertisers on Spotify shut out due to this ban include Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and the Republican National Committee. Sources told Ad Age that the platform doesn't generate significant revenue off political ads; however, the ban will undoubtedly be a blow to advertisers that look to Spotify's user base of young listeners. Ads attached to music and podcasts might perform better than TV and radio ads.
In recent months, other technology companies took similar action. Twitter stopped running political ads on its platform in late October, and Google has decided to limit them on both Search and YouTube. By banning or at least limiting political ads, these companies hope to protect user data.
Spotify did not share when it expects political ads to return. With a lot at stake in the 2020 US presidential election, don't be surprised if Spotify waits until 2021 to reintroduce the feature to advertisers.
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