Spotify’s ad offerings for brands have included audience targeting for some time – based on age, gender, location, platform, and genre preferences. Now, Spotify’s turning to playlists to unlock users’ current moods, so advertisers can know if users are in chill mode or turn-up mode.

The company has just announced playlist targeting for brands, set to kick off May 1.

“Music is an integral part of life, day in and day out,” said Jeff Levick, Chief Revenue Officer, Spotify. “Our new targeting solutions based on rich behavioral insights combined with our global footprint in 58 markets give brands unprecedented ways to reach streaming consumers.”

Spotify is leveraging all of its playlist data – based on more than 1.5 billion playlists – to provide advertisers with a glimpse into a user’s mood.

“We leverage first-party data to identify user-generated and Spotify-curated playlists aligned with popular activities and moods. We create audience segments by identifying users that listen frequently to playlists in each category. We refresh segments daily based on new playlists, new users, and overall streaming activity,” says Spotify.

Out of the gate, brands will be able to reach users based on a handful of activities and moods, signaled by playlists. These include workout, party, focus, commute, relax, travel, dining, and romance.

So, a coffee brand could play an ad to a user on his/her way to work, or a cruise line could play an ad for someone in the “travel” mood.

According to Ad Age, Spotify has been testing playlist targeting for a few months with eight brand partners.

“This is not something that’s just randomly thrown out there. It’s a strategic evolution of the Spotify ads business going back a year and a half ago with the mobile licenses,” said Spotify’s VP-North America advertising and partnerships Brian Benedik.

Playlist targeting will be available for brands at the start of next month, targeted to Spotify’s free-tier users. Earlier this week, Spotify began running a “tweet the beat” promotion, which basically amounts to an ad for all users – even those paying for premium.

Image via Spotify