[thomasrossi]

It's unlikely that they made such decisions "lightly". Most of the time the correct pricing decision is: make higher pricing (especially for a "startup" which had aggressive pricing to conquer the market). To raise the price of your ads, you need to make them more sticky/entangling, the outcome is straightforward!

[rplnt]

It was an ad by/for Universal Music and their Spotify playlist. I was once told here at HN that these ads are not actually paid but are part of a licensing deal.

[thomasrossi]

Interesting, thanks for sharing! I think it still applies in some ways, if I get it right that is probably used to lower the licenses fee. Raise the price or lower the costs, I think they need to show margin somehow.