The first quarter of 2015 was a big hit for streaming music service Spotify. Ad revenue increased 53% overall, and mobile ad revenue jumped to 380%, compared to Q1 of last year, says Music Business Worldwide. Spotify has not shared revenue figures yet, so we don’t know how that translates into actual dollars, but we do know 45 million active, free Spotify users are seeing those ads. { Spotify has a total of 60 million users, but the 15 million paid subscribers don’t see ads in the premium version.}Music Business Worldwide also reported that, effective May 1, Spotify is offering new features so brands can better target Spotify audiences, based on music streams and more than 1.5 billion playlists worldwide. Brands will be able to better target audience segments, by age, gender, geography, language, playlist, genre, what devices they use to listen to music, and how and when they listen.”Our new targeting solutions based on rich behavioral insights combined with our global footprint in 58 markets gives brands unprecedented ways to reach streaming consumers,” said Jeff Levick, chief revenue officer for Spotify.This suggests a greater commitment to advertisers and perhaps a desire to rely more on ad revenue, though in 2013, it made up only about 10% of Spotify’s total revenue, according to Digital Trends. The new ad features could also be a reaction to the growing competition in the streaming music marketplace. Last fall we reported on YouTube’s ad-free music subscription, Music Key. Other competitors include Beats, owned by Apple, and Tidal, owned by Jay Z. Each has its own pricing structure and pros and cons.Insider Take:Spotify seems to be on the right track and is taking advantage of opportunities to grow its revenue. With so many competitors entering the market, it is a good time to secure and retain advertisers. We hope the company is also making a commitment to the quality of its content and maximizing the user experience for paid and free users alike. To move forward and be viable on a long-term basis, Spotify will need to focus on acquiring new customers and converting more of the free users into paid subscribers. Being “good enough” in a highly competitive marketplace will not be “good enough.”