In a dubious move, Spotify today issued a “call to action” for podcasters to create interactive displays ads that will appear over ad reads.

“What’s the next great frontier in audio?” Spotify asks rhetorically. “We believe it’s interactivity.”

What Spotify is talking about is “bringing interactivity to the audio ad experience” using a system called call-to-action (CTA) cards that will appear over the Now Playing experience while an audio ad is playing. The idea is that finding links for the products and services that are advertised during podcasts is too difficult, and that this will drive engagement with sponsors.

That makes some sense, I guess. But most people probably skip over podcast ads without thinking much about it. But even for those people who may be interested in the ads, this sounds a bit invasive.

“CTA cards will appear in the app as soon as a podcast ad begins playing, and [they] will resurface later on while you’re exploring the Spotify app, making it easier to check out the brand, product, or service you heard about while listening,” the firm explains. “CTA cards will make it easier for you to directly discover the products and services you’re interested in without having a hard-to-remember promo code or vanity URL.”

You know what would be even more effective? Not letting users skip over ads. Something I suspect that Spotify will never enable since users can enjoy podcasts anywhere for free.

CTA cards will be available in select Spotify Original and Spotify Exclusive podcasts in the U.S. beginning today.

Tagged with Advertising