topic Re: Blocking. I upgraded to Premium to remove ads. in Content Questions

Blocking. I upgraded to Premium to remove ads.

AnotherHugh — Mon, 18 May 2020 23:53:55 GMT

I clicked a pop artist by accident, one single time. Now every time that I load Spotify they are displayed under Recently played as an advert. It does not appear possible to block this artist. When will this feature be available to your paying customers? Is my only option to cancel and subscribe again with a different email account and be careful to never click on music I don't already know that I like?

Failing that, can a premium user stop the Recently played list from displaying? Is it possible to hide the home page entirely? Can the recently played list be cleared? Surely that must be possible by law.

Your pricing plans clearly indicate that you can "Listen to music ad-free". Without the above feature this absolutely false and misleading.

It seems like such an obvious feature, I assumed by upgrading to Premium I would be able to easily do this without deleting my account and starting again.

In regards to deleting my account will all of my history be deleted in accordance with GDPR legislation? Will this legally mandatory feature be available to paying users at any point in the future?

Re: Blocking. I upgraded to Premium to remove ads.

OneByBoo — Wed, 20 May 2020 07:53:27 GMT

Hi there @AnotherHugh

thanks for reaching out to the community !

In order for me to help out, i would like you to first check you subscription status on your account overview here to make sure you're indeed on Premium.

Furthermore, what do you mean by saying you've clicked on a song and now it appears on your Recently Played as an ad ? it'll be great if you'd be able to provide me with a screenshot.

For you last question, a Premium subscriber who decided to cancel their Premium will have their account reverted back to the Free edition.

Any content created on the Premium subscription will be there for when the user decides to get back on Premium.

Waiting on your update 🙂

Re: Blocking. I upgraded to Premium to remove ads.

AnotherHugh — Fri, 22 May 2020 18:25:25 GMT

Here it is:

Re: Blocking. I upgraded to Premium to remove ads.

Rc36 — Sat, 24 Dec 2022 04:43:35 GMT

I’m a premium subscriber and while driving long distance today I was constantly distracted by pop up ads for merchandising requiring me to click an x to dismiss. On one occasion a page advertising tee shirts appeared in the app.

I’m also getting constant suggestions for podcasts.

why can’t I just use the app without all this annoying advertising?

This is not ad free listening. This is misleading and deceptive conduct & extremely stupid to boot (when driving the app should play music, select songs and never distract the user with ads or ridiculous Podcast recommendations.

If the user dismisses or ignores the ad or suggestion every time it is offered why keep on displaying it? Sloppy design and useless coding skills. Dark patterns.

if it doesn’t stop I’m going to report this to the New Zealand Police and NZ Transport Agency.