topic Ads on premium subscription in Subscriptions

Ads on premium subscription

really_mrtn — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 09:03:24 GMT

I pay for a premium AD-FREE subscription. Yet, a number of podcasts play advertisements before starting. These are not baked in, as podcasts in Spanish for Spanish speakers have ads in Danish.

So, they are clearly something that Spotify supplies.

Even on an AD-FREE premium subscription. So, what am I paying for? This is clearly a defect, but I can't report defects in your system ... which, incidentally, also sounds like a defect.

Re: Ads on premium subscription

Maxim — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 12:52:02 GMT

Hey @really_mrtn,

Thanks for coming to the Community.

Spotify advertises that a Premium user can listen to music without ad interruptions, which is one of the key benefits of a Premium subscription. However, podcasts for both free and Premium users may include ads, and they can be either host-read endorsements, sponsorships or audio adverts within the podcast track itself.

A special feature is available that can dynamically insert ads within a podcast stream. This can be enabled or disabled by the podcast publishers. The desire here is to provide some added value for those who want to host their podcasts on Spotify.

The teams at Spotify understand that there might be some confusion on the fact that Premium comes with ad free music listening, but doesn't cover podcasts.

Hopefully this explanation provides you with a better understanding of the Premium subscription and the ads that you listened to. Apologies if this was not made sufficiently clear before.

Spotify cares about their users' opinion and they're doing their best to expand on the information sources available to be more transparent 🙂

Re: Ads on premium subscription

lfs — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 08:38:48 GMT

It may explain, but it doesn't make it acceptable. We pay to be free from annoying ads, and now Spotify say that we have to endure them in podcasts? Try as you might to say that this might be stated in some huge document we agreed on when subscribing, but this it's nothing but betraying your users.

I almost expect Spotify to launch a new subscription level, more expensive, to get rid of ads on podcasts.

Re: Ads on premium subscription

ocheeeee — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 20:58:16 GMT

Estou com o mesmo problema! imagine voce fazer um som , l para os amigos profissionalmente e ao acabar uma musica vem esta **bleep** falar " MIGO tralalá tralalá " porrra se estamos pagando para eliminar propaganda vou cancelar e vou ficar com o gratuito!! é mesma coisa!!!!

Re: Ads on premium subscription

really_mrtn — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 07:58:06 GMT

@Maxim

Thank you for explaining, though pointing to the fine print doesn't reduce my annoyance. I have put my money where my mouth is and canceled my subscription. I have also written the background to Spotify. I plan on trying Podimo next.

-really_mrtn

Re: Ads on premium subscription

22fuey2fqtnv7o2sf5ko — Wed, 26 Feb 2025 22:15:51 GMT

This **bleep**, Spotify. The issue is not listening ad free music, but having podcasts interrupted by ads in other languages. Clearly it’s not content created by the podcasters if it’s an ad in a different language and completely out of context, and it is something Spotify puts in there. You’d better own it and ask a UX designer to check it before being so disrespectfully dismissive with your premium users.