McDonald’s, Nordstrom, Home Depot and Walgreens are some of the brands currently running ads on Apple’s new streaming service that launched June 30.
Last month, Apple unveiled Apple Music—its app combining iTunes, radio programming, a live show called Beats 1, and a social-media portal for artists called Connect.
The subscription-based radio part of the app costs $9.99 per month but also includes an ad-supported free version. Until June 30, brands were able to buy audio and video ads to play between songs through Apple’s iAd network.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based company reworked iAd in November, but with Apple Music, it’s uncertain whether brands will buy those same ads going forward.
Over the last couple of days, big brands’ ads have started showing up in the ad-supported portion of Apple Music, but marketers say their campaigns are not built specifically for the newly launched music service.
Home Depot is currently running a 30-second audio campaign pushing its e-commerce sales. A spokeswoman for the brand said the campaign is part of an upfront media buy with Apple. Since iTunes Radio rebranded as Apple Music on June 30, the brand has not built any new ads specifically for the new platform.
Similarly, Mindshare confirmed that its campaign for Nordstrom—which promotes the retailer’s anniversary sale—started running on July 17, two weeks after Apple Music launched. It also is a radio ad that was not created for Apple’s new setup.
It’s not clear if Apple will formally launch music-specific promos, but in the meantime, the ads look identical to iAds.
Meanwhile, Apple faces stiff competition from Pandora and Spotify for ad dollars in the music-streaming space. Both Spotify and Pandora have steadily been rolling out more sophisticated ad tools like programmatic buying, sponsored listening and targeted ads over the past couple of years.
