Every Monday, we take a look at a significant marketing trend and how it relates to the music industry. Today, we compile five digital trends shaping music advertising. Originally sent out in our Weekly Stat email.

1. Hyper-personalization

Streaming platforms are increasingly using big data to provide listeners with personalized music experiences that enhance the consumer experience. Here’s one example: 

After finding that songs discovered in personalized playlists are saved and repeated more than those in editorial playlists, Spotify announced changes to their platform. As of March this year, some mid-tier editorial playlists adapt to individual listeners based on their music tastes. 

The data surfaced by streaming platforms also improves advertising capabilities. Spotify recently introduced interest-based targeting (informed by user podcast, playlist, and platform preferences) into their Ad Studio platform. 

2. The explosion of short-form video content

2019 has been a massive year for short-form video content: there are 500 million daily viewers on Instagram Stories and 800 million monthly active users on TikTok. As short-form video popularity grows, so does the opportunity for artists to be heard. 

Music fuels the videos shared on these platforms and people are turning up the volume to watch. According to a recent Instagram study, 60% of Stories are viewed with sound on, and TikTok videos automatically play with sound on. 

TikTok recently launched their biddable ad product in Beta—work with Wavo to launch your first campaign.  

3. The growth of mobile

Mobile device use just keeps going up. In developed markets, 18% percent of music streamers are listening on mobile devices and more than half of US social media users are expected to be mobile-only by the end of this year. 

As social platforms double down on video content optimized for mobile, this space is increasingly important for music advertisers to understand and leverage. Read about Wavo's mobile-first approach in our July Strategy update.  

4. Second-screening

Our media use is becoming more fragmented—not only across platforms and networks but devices too. A recent Nielsen study found that 88% of TV viewers use a second device, like a smartphone or tablet, at the same time. 

This behavior emphasizes the importance of adopting a mobile strategy not just in advertising, but across all web properties for an artist, including e-commerce stores, tour webpages, and YouTube videos. To take advantage of second-screen traffic (from a Shazamed TV sync, for example) be sure to develop discoverable, mobile-friendly content that helps to tell an artist's brand story. 

5. Lots of location data

Over the next 12 months, 66% of marketers expect to increase their use of location data in audience targeting. It's worth noting that using location data to target audiences isn’t a particularly new tactic—Facebook offered this option way back in 2004 with their first auction-based CPC model. But marketers today are finding new ways to leverage this information to make smarter decisions. 

In music, this means integrating Spotify data into concert booking, creating ad audiences based on venues fans have visited, and developing billboards with area-specific offers.