Future of Advertising in Music

In addition to picking up drums during COVID, I also decided to go to ad school. As a Music Supervisor in ad school, it’s been interesting to see how often Spotify playlists have come up in creative pitches. To me this is very telling, both from a brand strategy perspective: the importance of audio branding, and from the perspective of an advertising music supe. 

I wondered, how important will it become for brands to really start digging into their audio identity, outside of a mnemonic or ad spots. And what if a playlist affects the corporate culture as much as it defines the customer identity?

I wanted to understand how others determine a brand’s sound for a branded Spotify playlist, so I called Karl Westman, the Music Director at Ogilvy who helped me with a COAd Club project last fall. He said something in the conversation that sharpened the concept of branded Spotify accounts… He was talking about the future of streaming, and how everything is becoming subscription based in order for consumers to avoid ads. “If advertising disappeared, what could a future of completely native advertising look like? Or sound like?”

The Current State of Branded Playlists

As streaming content becomes more mainstream, and subscription based models rule that, the need for traditional advertising to become integrated into a seamless brand experience becomes more necessary. Well, it’s always been necessary, and honestly, blatant ads will always find a way to break through, uncreatively, but there’s an opportunity here to really connect with customers; meeting them where they are.

There are already some at play for example:

1. Nike's "Run Club" Playlists:
   Nike has curated running playlists on Spotify under its "Nike Run Club" branding. These playlists are designed to motivate and energize runners while reinforcing Nike's association with an active lifestyle and sports. They also incorporate Nike's running app, creating a seamless brand experience.

2. Coca-Cola's "Share a Coke" Campaign:
   Coca-Cola's "Share a Coke" campaign involved creating personalized Coke cans with people's names. To complement this campaign, Coca-Cola collaborated with Spotify to create personalized "Share a Coke" playlists. Users could generate playlists with their names and share them on social media, reinforcing the campaign's theme of personalization and sharing.

3. Red Bull Music:
   Red Bull is already the king at integrating music into the brand. Red Bull has a strong presence in the music industry, and it uses streaming platforms to promote emerging artists and music events. The Red Bull Music platform on Spotify features exclusive tracks, artist interviews, and playlists that align with the brand's image of energy and creativity

4. McDonald’s Order Playlist:
   Forming sentences via playlists has been such a creative way to play with the plethora of song options available on Spotify.

Brands as Musical Tastemakers

These are great examples of creating branded playlists. In fact, when I think about brands who are considered musical tastemakers because of their campaigns, three come to mind:

1. Apple: The company's products and services have played a pivotal role in the digital music revolution. Apple Music's curated playlists and collaborations with artists contribute to its influence on music discovery and promotion. When you think of a brand who’s advertisement is probably going to add another tune to your playlist, discovering the next up and coming artist, Apple ads come to mind.

2. Starbucks: Starbucks has created its own unique music identity through its in-store playlists and collaborations with artists. Its coffee shops often feature curated playlists that contribute to the overall ambiance. One way Starbucks could push this more, is host the stereotypical evening open mic for songwriters and budding musicians. Honestly, it’s surprising they never leaned into this brand perception more. But that’s for another article. As far as in-store playlists go, while Abercrombie was also notorious for having an identifiable sonic identity of their in-store music, I never considered their music to be tastemaker level. In fact, their in-store music sound was more infamous than beloved. 

3. Fenty: I cannot wait to see a Fenty ad when it comes on because I know it’s going to be something unique, energizing, and usually produced by a minority. I love the music choices of Fenty ads: a lot of vocal percussion.

For brands to become a musical tastemaker, you’d need a talented music supervisor to identify the songs strong enough to make listeners come back for more.

For example, beer and alcohol sales have greatly skewed away from American Lagers and Vodka and are steeply trending to Mexican beer and Tequila. This is in part due to the popularity of Mexican cuisine. To advertise in this space and do it justice, it isn’t enough to put a Hispanic celebrity or a Spanish song in the ad. Not when there’s an opportunity to cultivate a craving for the audience to hear more. And by that I mean, by consistently selecting music the audience wants to add to their playlist, helping them discover their next favorite song or artist.

When viewers eagerly anticipate the next advertisement, not just for its product but for the musical journey it offers, the brand becomes a curator of culture—a guide to what's fresh, exciting, and worth embracing.

In this landscape, a music curator's role is more akin to that of a cultural storyteller. They craft narratives through sound, weaving together the brand's identity, the spirit of the culture it represents, and the anticipation of discovery. It's a journey that transforms advertisements into moments of connection, where audiences don't just consume but actively participate in the brand's story.

In the future of music and advertising, it's the brands that embrace this approach—those that curate music clever and unique enough to leave audiences craving the next chapter—that will redefine the intersection of culture, music, and marketing.

The Future of Music & Advertising

While these brands have successfully integrated music into their identities and marketing campaigns, the future holds exciting prospects that extend beyond mere playlist curation. The next frontier in music and advertising involves commissioned music from emerging artists—a fusion of creativity, branding, and the promotion of fresh talent.

Playlists are easy. But what if these brands took music a step further and worked with emerging artists to tell their brand story, mission, vision, ethos? Native and seamless advertising at its finest? It sort of makes you gag. But when you think about the future of premium subscriptions, disappearing ads, the role that branded playlists play to work around that… there’s potential to go further. 

McDonald’s appealing to urban audiences could take on a whole new, powerful meaning if it were to source music from up and coming R&B and hip hop artists. Not just in the realm of sync, but via commissioned music to create truly, branded playlists by way of sync camps, with assistance of publishers and music supervisors you can get some really impactful tunes that relate and connect with this audience.