Exploring Spotify's audience in Australia, Singapore, and Thailand

Spotify recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, temporarily changing its iconic green circle with a disco ball. The anniversary presents an opportunity to take a closer look at the audience of a brand that has changed the way we listen to music – and their attitudes to marketing and advertising in Australia, Singapore, and Thailand.

Spotify users by age and gender 

Data from YouGov Profiles shows that the age of Spotify users varies heavily from market to market. It's the same brand, but its appeal varies heavily depending on where exactly in APAC you look.

Singaporean Spotify users are more likely to be in the 18-34 demographic (45%), or the 35-54 group (35%), and less likely to be over-55 (20%). Thailand is a slightly different story: 39% of the user base is 18-34, 45% are 35-54, and 16% are over-55. The biggest divergence may be Australia: 26% are 18-34, 37% are 35-54, and 37% are 55+.

When looking along gender lines, Spotify users in Singapore  don’t veer too far from the average.

There’s a slightly wider gap in Thailand (Male: 53%; Female 47%) compared to the general proportion of men and women (49% vs. 51%). Again, though, Australia represents a wider divergence: 42% of users are male and 58% are female, compared to 49% and 51% respectively for the general public. For marketers, understanding this nuance can help inform advertising strategies on the platform.

Spotify users in Australia are more cynical towards advertising than those in Thailand and Singapore 

Beyond demographic data, attitudes to advertising illuminate some of the key similarities and differences between these Spotify audiences. A similar chunk of the user base in Singapore (45%), Thailand (49%), and Australia (49%), for example, say that ‘personalised advertisements creep them out’. This is one of the few areas where the three markets are relatively aligned.

Another such area is the sense that users are bombarded with advertising (Singapore: 57%; Thailand: 58%; Australia: 65%).  Whether marketing to Spotify users on or off-platform, it may be useful to remember that adverse experiences with other advertising may have impacted how receptive the target customer may be (particularly in Australia).

That said, there are some areas where the differences between these three very different markets are more apparent. For example, Spotify users in Thailand are more likely to say they enjoy watching ads with their favourite celebrities (64%), but this falls to 36% for Singaporean users, and just 17% in Australia. So, a voiceover campaign starring Jacob Elordi or Nicole Kidman might go down better in other APAC nations than their home country.

There are also some clear splits when it comes to advertising formats. Ads at airports, for example, may be more noticed by Spotify users in Thailand (68%) or Singapore (52%) than Australia (49%). The gap widens when it comes to billboards showing dynamic content, where again, the platform’s users in Thailand (63%) are more receptive than those in Australia (34%) or Singapore (47%).

Online the favoured advertising channel for Spotify users in all three markets 

Looking at formats a little more closely, we can see that online is the most heavily favoured advertising medium in all three markets, albeit to different degrees (Singapore: 68%; Thailand 87%; Australia 57%). TV adverts come a fairly distant second (25% vs. 56% vs. 37%).

Again, billboard advertising is an area of real divergence, with 41% of Spotify users resident in Thailand saying they would notice it, falling to just a fifth of Australian (22%) and Singaporean (22%) users. One area where Australian Spotify users are more receptive is radio: 26% would notice it, compared to just one in six users in Singapore (18%) and Thailand (17%).

Ultimately, these differences illustrate that APAC is not a monolith for marketers and advertisers: the target audience of a single brand can vary wildly in age, attitudes, and preferences across different countries within the region. We cannot treat Thai, Australian, or Singaporean Spotify users as the same, and that extends to the rest of APAC as well.

Methodology

YouGov Profiles is based on continuously collected data through rolling surveys, rather than a single limited questionnaire. Figures are drawn from rolling responses using a 52-week dataset updated weekly.

Image: Getty