I’m on my way for my Daily Politics debut on BBC 2 this lunchtime, to talk about the Tories’ new ad on Spotify.

I’m embarrassed to admit that I haven’t heard the ad – I’ve been testing out the ad-free Spotify Premium for a feature I’m writing for Stuff – but according to reports it features Conservative chairman Eric Pickles doing a dad-at-the-disco routine. Except that he’s obviously had some savvy scriptwriters, as he apologies for interrupting your listening pleasure with something you don’t want to hear.

He then lays into Gordon Brown’s profligate public spending before suggesting that listeners will have their “chance to end the madness” at next year’s election.

Unsurprisingly, there’s been a bit of a negative buzz around the ad – unsurprising because all Spotify ads are annoying and Twitter has an undeniable a liberal bent – but I also sense a grudging respect. The Tories did Spotify first, and they didn’t do it totally wrong: they hit that youngish, media-savvy audience head on, and set reverberations around the media, old and new.

And many of those reverberations, like this blog, echo the Tory’s central message even if they don’t agree with it. Job done.

There’s been a lot said about Obama’s skilful use of social media in the US presidential election. Spotify – and other web 2.0 services – will be hoping that they will become a political battleground, drawing in much needed advertising revenue while simultaneously stoking demand for the ad-free premium version of the site for those who’d rather listen to Billy Bragg without interruption from Tory grandees.

Will Labour rise to challenge? I suspect so. But if Gordon Brown’s dalliance with YouTube is anything to go by, they could get it terribly wrong.

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