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[All Platforms] No Ads in Podcasts for Spotify Premium users

I pay for my subscription. Every month for years now. The main reason I am a paid-for subscriber with Spotify is so I don't have to hear ads. As I have shifted my podcast listening from other providers to Spotify to bypass ads, both from the platform as well as integrated into the content.

 

I expect not to hear ads on Spotify. I understand there are ads woven into the actual content of the podcast itself, but for as big of a company and the amount of leverage Spotify has, I expect to not hear ads so long as I am paying for the service.

 

I reached out to Spotify and got this lazy, generic answer from Joy in Spotify Customer Support: “if you're hearing ads on podcasts using this Premium account. It's possible that the podcaster integrated that ads to their podcast content”. Thanks for breaking your back on that response.

 

I KNOW what the ads I’m hearing are. And I understand they can’t ask podcasters to export two versions, one with integrated ads and one without. What I expect from Spotify is to either implement metadata that tags the beginning and ending of ad segments and bypass them for us, Premium subscribers, or require podcasters to give metadata timecodes that Spotify can identify to bypass them AUTOMATICALLY.

 

Just to be clear, even if these identifiers are put into the content, I don’t want to have to pull my phone out to hit any sort of “skip ads” button. This is literally the ONLY reason users have Premium. So get rid of the ads. It’s actually very simple. And let’s not get started on how archaic it is to continually hit the “15sec forward” button to bypass the ads, first over shooting, then undershooting the duration of the integrated ad, only to have to make peace with hearing the last ten seconds of the ad. At that point it’s not servicing either party in the transaction.

 

It’s 2020. You are a huge company with a lot of leverage and a huge developer budget. I honestly can’t believe I’m even having to write this suggestion.

 

tl:dr - Spotify, I am a Premium member. You made a promise to me that if I became a Premium member, I wouldn’t hear ads. I’m hearing ads on podcasts. Integrated or not, I don’t care. You have the technology and power to fix it. So fix it. And make it automatic. It’s 2020.

Updated on 2023-04-15

Hey folks,

The Ideas section provides users with the opportunity to share their opinion on what features and app improvements can be developed, to make Spotify better. This idea however, in it's core fundamentals, requires to change how the Premium subscription works and what opportunities Spotify offers to Podcast creators.

 

As part of the Premium subscription, all music can be enjoyed ad-free. And while Spotify doesn’t play ads that interrupt the music listening experience of Premium subscribers, some podcasts may include advertising, host-read endorsements, or sponsorship independently of the streaming platforms featuring such podcasts.

 

Providing a way to circumvent those is not something that our Idea submission process can accomplish.


This doesn't mean that your feedback isn't heard and that this request couldn't be fulfilled by some other means in the future. On the contrary, this is being monitored and we invite everyone to share their opinion in a constructive manner. We will then ensure to pass it on to the relevant teams.

 

Please do note, that we do understand the overall sentiment and if the thread stops being useful as a source to track constructive feedback, we will need to close it for further replies.

 

All the best!

Comments
Me salen anuncios durante el potcast
Hajowang

Lets all goto Platsore and rate 1 star and write they forced ads in podcast.

Annien123

It is getting worse. I got 3 ads in 40 minutes. I sometimes use podcasts to help me fall asleep and since they made the ads so f****n loud I almost fall out of bed. Why am I paying spotify a lot of money each month (more than for my TV) to use premium? Please fix this and remove ads for premium users. Where is the benefit of being a premium user? I would really like for anyone related to spotify to tell me that. And no, I do not care about benefits for music. For Podcasts. If this goes on I will certainly cancel my subscription

 

nathanssturner

As a neurodivergent person, the now incessant ad inserts on podcasts (despite paying premium for over a decade) is infuriating to the point of making me nauseous and I am forced to switch off the episode/show. Spotify don't appear to give a single thought to just how triggering it is. I use podcasts to quite literally calm my mind and regulate my mood when I'm feeling overwhelmed, so to have umpteen adverts - the same adverts on loop over and over and over ON THE SAME DAMN EPISODE, dumped in a completely interruptive fashion that completely dusrupts the entire experience and turns it into a teeth gritting annoyance, is blood boiling to the extreme in my case.

 

The irony of it is, half the adverts are telling me to join this OTHER platform if I want an ad free experience!!!! What a hilarious blindspot, that Spotify are taking ad money from companies telling customers to dump spotify because "adverts". And much as it pains me - as I like all my content to be in one place and hate my devices requiring even more annoying apps to do basic functions, I am at the point with Spotify where I just find the whole podcast user experience quite unbearable and the way they are perfectly happy to take my premium account money, but totally rip me off on the well below par sub premium experience...that really grinds my gears. Time to find a platform that actually treats paying customers properly. 

Hajowang

How can we protests about this and have this idea actually delivered? I feel like they don't **bleep**ing care. Everyone should goto google play and leave a 1 Star review and any other platform we can think of to leave a bad reviews.

dlobo244

estoy cansado de los anuncios en podcast y además de 2 minutos de duración!!!!!!! no mas 

BRguy

Debería ser ilegal. Nos han ofrecido "una experiencias sin anúncios " según su propaganda. 

BRguy

Si por lo menos tuvieramos representación legal, podriamos presentar una queja en grupo. Hay mucha gente cabreada por haber sido engañada por spotify. I si ho hacemos nada, luego serán otras plataformas. No nos libraremos de pagar por un servicio y seguir vendo anuncios.

BRguy

We can. Samsung receive some critocs about privacy years ago on their TV cams (look for it). They were forced to change the way the software works. So, we really could present our complain in legal ways. But we would need to organize ourselves. Get some journalists invelved, some midia on it. Otherwise, the others will do the same and we will always see commercials on paid content. 

TjeerdWO

Does this mean that podcasr produceren are allowed to bypass Spotify's premium benefits?? That would be a breach of our agreement.