Spotify adverts could be about to get a whole lot more annoying, as the company begins to test voice ads that want to to talk back to them.
Nasdaq reports that Spotify has started testing voice adverts that want customers to talk to their adverts, giving voice commands to explore content in the adverts. Right now, the test is only taking place for a select group of users in the United States using Spotify’s ad-supported free tier.
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These unlucky users will be subjected to an advert for Unilever’s Axe body-spray, or Lynx to those of you in the UK, asking them to say “play now” to check out a Spotify enabled podcast. It’s a cool idea, but part of me worries about the dystopian cyberpunk future we’re easing our way into.
You’ll only be selected by the Spotify advertising gods if you’ve previously enabled voice control, and you can turn off voice ads in your ad settings, if you don’t fancy bellowing at theoretical future Subway adverts when you’re on a theoretical bus. To turn them off, you can dive into the settings menu and look for “Voice-Enabled Ads” to turn them off, or even go into the settings menu for your device and turn off microphone access completely.
It could be used for a variety of cool new products, so this is something to keep an eye on for the future. Could we be activating a future Avengers advert by bellowing “Avengers Assemble”? if we’re going to have stuff sold to us, at least make it entertaining. That’s always been my personal view at least.
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It isn’t the only one. Pandora, a US based music streaming service is also experimenting with voice-controlled adverts, because this is definitely the advert-driven capitalist hellscape we deserve.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
