Spotify hires ‘ad exec’ and aims to grow sales team by 70%

Spotify is set to hire hundreds more sales staff to boost its ad revenue beyond being a fraction of the streaming and podcasting company’s income.

The Swedish music streaming service plans to increase its ads business marketing team by more than 70% across Europe, Australia and Canada according to an interview in Reuters with Lee Brown, Spotify’s head of advertising business.

Mediatel News confirmed with a Spotify spokesperson that the company has also hired an ad industry exec with 25 years of international experience to lead international sales. The company is refusing to disclose the name at this time.

Currently advertising makes up less than 10% of Spotify’s total revenue, Brown noted. Much of their revenue comes from paid subscriptions to Spotify Premium where users can skip ads.

According to Spotify’s most recent quarterly financial report, the company reported €131m in ad revenue, which is 7% of a total revenue of €1.89bn.

Earlier this year, Marco Bertozzi, former EMEA head of sales, left and subsequently joined influencer marketing business  Whalar.