The Problem

As both a YouTube Music power user and UX/Advertising specialist, I’ve experienced a critical gap in audio streaming: users in hands-free scenarios miss valuable ad content with no way to recover it.

When driving or running, I often hear compelling movie trailers, product launches, or healthcare ads that I want to revisit later—but can’t. This creates a lose-lose-lose scenario:

• Users experience FOMO on relevant content
• Advertisers waste budget on earned attention they can’t capitalize on
• Platforms miss revenue from unmeasured latent intent

No major streaming service (Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music) addresses audio advertising’s fundamental limitation: the lack of visual anchors and replay capability.

The Solution: Ad History Library

I designed an “Ad History” section in YouTube Music that stores recently played ads for 24 hours, allowing users to:

• Replay ads they found interesting
• Access advertiser landing pages with one click
• Control their post-impression engagement

The Impact

This transforms inefficiency into a three-way win:

For Users: Regain control over ads you choose to engage with—no more losing that movie trailer or product you wanted to research later.

For Advertisers: Unlock post-impression conversions with measurable replay metrics. Nielsen data shows 40% increased brand recall when users can revisit audio ads.

For YouTube: Become the first streaming platform to solve audio advertising’s accountability gap, creating a new revenue stream from replay engagements and setting an industry standard.

Why This Matters

This feature addresses a $50+ billion audio advertising market’s core weakness while positioning YouTube Music as the most advertiser-friendly streaming platform. It’s not just a UX improvement—it’s a fundamental shift toward making audio ads as accountable and effective as visual ones.