Spotify rewards fans for ripping down its posters

Spotify has turned a decades-old bit of fan behaviour into part of its latest Fan Life brand campaign, making street posters tearable so music fans can take one home.

The posters feature perforated sections designed to be ripped away, with a handful of artist-signed versions hidden among them.

It is a nice reversal of the usual outdoor advertising problem: rather than stopping people stealing posters, Spotify has built the behaviour into the idea.

The execution forms part of the third instalment of Fan Life, Spotify’s global celebration of the rituals that form around artists and live music.

Created by Spotify’s in-house team, the latest work features real fan communities including A$AP Rocky devotees wearing pink hair rollers, Geese fans in crocheted goose hats and Zara Larsson fans embracing early-2000s maximalism.

Previous Fan Life work has captured similarly specific behaviour, from Pitbull fans arriving in suits and bald caps to Megan Moroney fans singing along in their cars.

The brand is treating consumer behaviour around music as the creative material itself, rather than something advertising needs to interrupt.