Spotify has launched new ad products in Canada, as well as several other markets, in order to provide advertisers with more targeting options.

New this year is the Audience Upload feature, which will see Spotify identify “known and prospective” customers prior to the execution of the campaign. A Spotify spokesperson explained to MiC that the data will come from the advertisers’ own first-party data “in a privacy compliant manner.”

It’s also expanding demographic and interest-based targeting. Using first-party data, Spotify will dive into more specific segments on Spotify Ad Studio. The spokesperson explained that the interests are gathered largely through listening activities. For example, many playlists are associated with activities such as “partying” or “eating dinner.” Spotify is also using its first-party data and insights to identify more behaviour outside of Spotify usage alone. The spokesperson used the example of fitness enthusiasts as one group advertisers might want to target.

Other new features include an improved “pre-campaign audience sizer.” It’s also upgraded daily performance and audience metrics.

While Spotify doesn’t share its monthly active users on a country or market level, the platform currently has 200 million active users, half of which are on the free (ad-supported) tier.

Spotify’s Ad Studio is the self-serve audio advertising product it rolled out this year. The company has said it’s the fastest-growing source of revenue for Spotify. While Ad Studio is largely targeted by small and medium businesses, the spokesperson clarified that Spotify is still working to generate big business from national advertisers. Recent initiatives targeting national advertisers include unlocking its popular Discover Weekly playlists for brands to sponsor.

“Microsoft’s AI campaign, ‘Empowering Us All’ immediately came to mind,” the spokesperson said. “It explores the impact that AI will have across many sectors… This campaign was a natural fit for the AI-built Discover Weekly playlist.”