Dive Brief:

• The native ad space has a new player with Rdio’s Promoted Music Experience native advertising product.
• Promoted Music Experience launches with Hard Rock Hotels and Casinos as its initial client.
• The new native ad product includes a branded station, profile and home story for advertisers, and is being described as a "hybrid" of what rivals Pandora and Spotify offer.

Dive Insight:

The streaming music sector has been active in reaching desired audiences and seeking revenue streams. Rdio made a move for the latter in announcing Promoted Music Experience.

Jared Heiman, head of Global Advertising Partnerships for Rdio, told Adweek, "Streaming services thus far have had a difficult time introducing native advertising into its platform. Nobody is offering all three components in one ad package." 

He described the new ad product as a combination of what competitors in the space are doing, saying the the three "core components" Rdio is packaging into the product is unique to them and "is a way for us to allow advertisers to dip into our catalog."

Earlier this year Spotify began laying the groundwork to enter the hot video space through partnerships with major media companies like ESPN, NBC, Conde Nast and Comedy Central. And streaming service Pandora began a marketing push of its own to promote the brand and attract a young demographic according to Pandora’s CMO. That campaign followed Pandora’s “sponsored listening” initiative that allows marketers to provide users with an hour of ad-free listening after viewing a short ad.