Spotify to Suspend Political Advertising in 2020

Spotify Technology said on Friday that it would stop selling political ads on its music streaming platform in early 2020. The world's most popular paid music streaming service, with around 141 million users tuning into its ad-supported platform in October, said the pause would expand to also streamline original and exclusive podcasts. The move, first reported by Advertising Age, came to light in November 2020 as a campaign for the US presidential election.

Online platforms, including Facebook and Alphabet's Google, are increasing the pressure of police misinformation on their platforms and stop doing political advertisements with false or misleading claims.

Twitter banned political ads in October and last month, Google said it would stop giving advertisers the ability to target election ads using data such as public voter records and general political affiliation.

A spokesperson for Spotify said in a statement to Reuters, "At this time, our processes, systems and tools do not have the required level of robustness.

"We will reassure this decision as we continue to develop our capabilities."

Spotify, which was only accepting political advertising in the United States, did not answer Reuters' question of how much revenue the company earns from political advertising.

The Republican digital strategist, Eric Wilson, said: "there was already not a widely used online advertising platform for campaigns." "But as other online platforms restricted their political advertising lists, advertisers were on the hunt for new options."

The new policy will include political groups such as candidates for office, elected and appointed officials, political parties, political action committees (PACs) and super PACs, as well as material advocating for or against those entities. Spotify also will not sell advertisements that advocate legislative and judicial results.

The trick only applies to Spotify's ad sales, no ads embedded in third-party content, although they will still be subject to Spotify's broader content policies.