The Power of Geographic Targeting in Early Marketing for Spotify

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In the early days of Spotify, they found that geographical density played a crucial role in signing up users. They focused their marketing efforts on college cities in the US, where consumers were more likely to be music enthusiasts. This targeted approach was highly successful and helped them to find their first audience. Spotify believes that launching globally from day one is not always the right approach for internet companies. By constraining themselves geographically, they were able to effectively limit their audience and gain traction. In fact, Spotify credits their decision to launch in the US as their first market as a key factor in their survival and success.

We sit down with Spotify CEO Daniel Ek live in Stockholm at Spotify’s amazing HQ studio (check out the video version of this episode — which plays natively on Spotify!). This was an incredibly special and timely conversation: for those who haven’t been paying attention over the past few years, after revolutionizing music Spotify has now ALSO completely transformed our own industry in podcasting. Starting from way behind with ~zero market share in 2018, Spotify has now aggregated the listener market and amazingly surpassed Apple as the world’s largest podcast platform — including close to home with the Acquired audience, where it has 60%+ market share among you all!

We discuss the origins of this “second act” strategy with Daniel, the vision to move from a music company to an audio company, and what’s coming next with Spotify’s entry into Audiobooks. And of course we relive some key moments from the Acquired canon that Daniel was involved in, including his pivotal conversations with Taylor Swift and her team convincing her to come back to streaming following the release of 1984. Tune in!

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Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.