Spotify recently announced that they may be adding sponsored songs from labels users’ playlists across the platform for non-subscription based users.
According to the company, it was a small trial run and users were able to opt out of it in their settings.
This is a new attempt for the streaming juggernaut to generate more funds as they continue to operate at a loss of $600,776,640 in 2016. Their 140 million users and 50 million subscribers generate roughly $3.2 billion in funds.
“This is not the silver bullet but instead part of what will be a multi-faceted answer to Spotify’s margin woes,” said Mark Mulligan, managing director of Midia research to BBC News. “In a broader context, this may presage a wider strategy similar to that of Facebook’s, whereby it effectively starts charging artists and labels for access to fans.”
It is also said that Spotify is considering going public on the stock market.
“We are always testing new promotional tools that deliver the highest relevancy to our users,” Spotify stated.