This week, Spotify released our second quarter 2022 financial performance. We had a very strong quarter, building on the momentum and success we’ve seen over the past four consecutive quarters. The platform now has 433M MAU globally (up 19% YoY), of which 256M are ad-supported MAU (up 22% YoY). Ad supported revenue in turn grew 31% YoY, and we have an optimistic outlook for even more growth in the future, due in large part to audio being so differentiated from other mediums and the investments we’re making in new solutions and measurement capabilities.

As we move further into 2022, Spotify Advertising’s mission remains the same—to modernize audio advertising globally in order to deliver greater impact for advertisers, while fueling growth for creators and publishers.

Here are the top highlights from Q2, featuring opportunities for advertisers on Spotify:

1. Building the World’s #1 Audio Network.

Our CEO Daniel Ek remains bullish on building the world’s #1 Audio Network. Why? Because audio is differentiated from all other media in that it truly immerses people and reaches them everywhere. Expanding in the audio space, our acquisition of Findaway marks our entrance into audiobooks, and our acquisition of Sonantic, an AI based text to speech technology signals exciting innovation in the audio space.

We’re seeing the love for audio reaffirmed throughout the advertising industry. Audio was celebrated at Cannes Lions this year, with more submissions in the Radio + Audio categories than ever before. Spotify Advertising proudly took home two Gold Lions in the B2B and Audio and Radio category for our campaign, A Song for Every CMO. At Spotify Beach, we celebrated globe trotting audio content like Batman Unburied and discussed the need for representation in audio through the lens of our Outside Voices series. We spoke with Teenager Therapy podcast co-hosts Kayla Suarez and Thomas Pham, and JUV Consulting Founder and CEO Ziad Ahmed about our Culture Next report and how Gen Z is listening and creating on Spotify.

2. Winning with Gen Zs and providing advertisers insight and access to this must-win audience.

Spotify added 19 million MAUs this past quarter, our largest Q2 in history, and much of this growth is coming from Gen Zs (particularly in Latin America). To help advertisers better understand Gen Zs, we recently released our annual Culture Next report; which unpacks how Zs are streaming, creating, and redefining culture. They’re streaming over 578 billion minutes of music, and their podcast streaming is up 41%.¹ All that streaming intelligence, combined with our global survey data leads to rich insights. For example, 67% of the Zs we surveyed reported feeling stressed out… but on the positive side, 69% of Zs characterize their generations as change-makers rather than status quo.² How will you apply these insights to your next creative campaign?

3. Investing in medium-defining content, which creates exciting opportunities for advertisers.

We now have 4.4 million podcasts on the platform and in Q2 alone, we released 100 new Original and Exclusive podcasts globally, with Batman Unburied hitting #1 in several key markets. In addition to our O&E slate, we’re continuing to add new publishers to the Spotify Audience Network, which we continue to fortify through our investments in measurement, targeting, formats and self service tools.

On the music side, we celebrated Asian Pacific Island Month and Pride with dedicated on-platform content hubs, and we launched K-Pop On Track!, dedicated to all things K-Pop. Check out our guide on how to create inclusive audio advertising so that your brand can show up authentically within this new content.

4. Doubling down on brand safety with our IAS Partnership.

As podcasts continue to grow, so does our commitment to keeping our platform a safe environment for creators, listeners and advertisers. That’s why we’re partnering with Integral Ad Science (IAS) to establish a first-of-its-kind brand safety framework for podcasts.

Together, we aim to create a new brand safety reporting tool powered by our first party data and verified IAS’ independent analysis solutions based on the Global Alliance for Responsible Media’s (GARM) categories and guidelines. We intend to provide advertisers more transparency about where their ads are heard, first within third-party podcasts in the Spotify Audience Network, and soon more broadly. UM Worldwide is jumping in as the first holding company to test this product.

Interested in reaching Spotify listeners all over the globe? Connect with a Spotify rep, or get started immediately with Spotify Ad Studio, our self-serve ads manager.