Premium account and still gets ads in podcasts

[Vonplaf]

I have a premium account and when I start some podcasts I get ads in my national language "Danish" but the Podcast is in English and after the ads that Spotify have put into the start of the podcast I also have to listen to about 1-1½ min of ads from the podcast company.
STOP this Spotify, I pay for not hearing ads and you still stuff them into the podcasts.

Plan

Premium

Country

Denmark

Device

OnePlus 7 Pro

Operating System

Android 10

[Eni]

Hey there @Vonplaf,

Thanks for reaching out about this and welcome to the Community. We'll be happy to shed some light on this 🙂

Spotify doesn’t play or include ads that interrupt the music listening experience of Premium subscribers. However, some podcast creators may include third-party advertising, host-read endorsements, or sponsorship messages in their episodes.

Regarding the language of the ads - it's normal to get ads in the local language of the country your current IP address is coming from. 

We hope this clears things up. If you need anything else, give us a shout.

[3rduncle]

"Spotify gives the podcast hosts the option to choose if they would like to have a dynamic ad slot in their podcast, but that isn't something Spotify can control - it's up to the individual podcast owners if they choose to have that type of ad in their content."

There is a problem with this copy paste response:

"Spotify gives the podcast hosts the option"

"that isn't something Spotify can control"

Please stop insulting the intelligence of customers. You know we pay not to hear ads. yet "(you) give the podcast hosts the option to choose if they would like to have a dynamic ad slot in their podcast"

You are breaching customer trust in an egregious way and this repeated copy paste response does not cover it.

This must be a constant topic. Is there any reflection within Spotify about the effect this breach of trust (I won't say breach of contract as no doubt there is some tiny sentence about it hidden in the Ts & Cs)  has on your customer base?

Today I had to listen to a French ad for food delivery in the middle  - literally mid sentence - of my English language podcast.  I don't live in France, haven't been there in 20 years and don't speak French.

After 5 years, this, combined with the disinterested response from Spotify, is what's going to make me cancel my sub.  

[Vonplaf]

Nope ... spotify is in total control of this and is able to make this right so we get what we pay for.
We pay for a subscription to avoid ads there for as spotify gives podcasters the option to bypass this, spotify have violated the subscription that we pay for.

[Jeremy]

Hi there folks,

Thank you for your replies and feedback.

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.

What we mean is that we provide this option to podcast creators as an extra way to help them monetize and live off of their content. As this is a good way to support content creators we don't plan on taking this feature away from them at the moment and we also don't enforce any mandates on who wants to activate it or not.

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 onto the relevant teams.

We hope this information was helpful.

Let us know if we can help you with anything else.

Take care!

[Vonplaf]

The Give us the premium users the option to opted out of that feature for the podcasters, then the users can decide if they wanna accept the extra ads from the podcasters.
At the moment I am getting approx. 2 extra min of ads on top of the baked in ads the podcasters are doing during a podcast.
And again by allowing this feature for the podcasters spotify is not giving the users the ad free content that they are paying for.

[Vonplaf]

Why should I submit something for spotify to implement when its entirely a problem that spotify have created and is not willing to provide the ad free content that premium subscribers are paying for ??

But from now on when ever I am listing to a podcast that uses that system (easy to spot when all my podcasts are in english and the ads all out of the blue are in danish) I will no longer listen to that podcast.
So Spotify by having this feature for the podcasters you are driving users from your platform and driving users away from listing to the podcasters that use your feature..
Or you could just give ud the ad-free content that we pay for and exclude premium users from being affected by that feature you gave the podcasters.

I did a test today on a podcast from iheartradio (Techstuff) and the extra ads I get added up to 4½ extra min of ads on top of the 4 min of ads they have baked in to their 45 min long podcast.
Spotify, thats 4½ min of ads I payed you for not sending my way but you did it any way.

[x414]

This is ridiculous. You are breaching the contract Spotify. I don't want to hear any ads. Just pay podcasters more.

[Samsone]

Its absolutely disgusting how they try to spin it like its not their fault.

Podcasters can put sponsors in their podcast themselves like they have always done, there was never a need for this. Implementing a function that makes ads able to play for premium users is such a dirty move and in my opinion a breach of trust with your customers. We are litterally paying for an ad-free experience when using your app, its the main reason we pay you.

Its painfully obvious they are just trying to squeeze more money out of their loyal customers so they dont have to pay podcasters as much themselves. I think they are gonna loose a lot of subscribers if this keeps going cause there are so many other great options for listening to music/podcasts who aren’t pulling this **bleep**.

[IanCahn]

Hey folks, like everyone here that took the time to complain on the Spotify forum, I am paying Spotify a monthly free for a no ads experience. My question though is, why don't Americans file a class action law suit against them for breach of contract? They are literally falsely advertising no Ads, and instead of removing the ads for premium users, they offer some generic response from some support agent. This means they are basically spitting on every single paid user and without any repercussions, this will not be solved and will probably get worse in the future. Would love some feedback from American users. 

[IanCahn]

Hey folks, like everyone here that took the time to complain on the Spotify forum, I am paying Spotify a monthly free for a no ads experience. My question though is, why don't Americans file a class action law suit against them for breach of contract? They are literally falsely advertising no Ads and instead of removing the ads for premium users, they offer some generic response from some support agent. This means they are basically spitting on every single paid user and without any repercussions, this will not be solved and will probably get worse in the future. Would love some feedback from American users. 

[alex22p22]

If podcasts aren't part of the ad-free experience that premium users pay for, then please get rid of them from my homepage. If I'm paying for ad-free music content, then why are you filling up my homepage with suggestions for podcasts?

[dly4la680c80eeeog546]

This is going on for years, a request to remove those for premium members. As I seen even requests for this already in 2020 I am now cancelling my premium and go to a different music provider where I don't have to listen to ads in podcasts! And don't come with your standard answer to hide the laziness of Spotify to do some coding which can be easily done!

[Vonplaf]

@Jemery 

When can we expect a reply from Spotify on this topic ??
Feels like the opinion of the community is more that spotify should start to its users and remove this add feature in the podcasts for premium members.

[dtctfsh]

I dont listen to many podcasts, so just got my first personalized ad... and like what the **bleep**? I value my privacy, and i dont want to deal with ads! Like spotify, you just ruined my trust entierly all in one go! FFS might as well just go switch to youtube music at this rate.

[Saft]

Yes this is ridiculous. Im paying for Spotify premium. Now I’m suddenly got extra (not baked in to the podcast) ads from Spotify. 
So then there is basically no reason to pay for premium subscription anymore?? 

[Majkiboy]

Well, in Sweden this might be against the law. This is false marketing, you play with words, "podcast" is not "music" therefore you think you can play adds. Well, if everyone think they will get an ad free experience and they aren't then you are in the wrong. You are tricking people! I urge everyone to submit a complaint to their local consumer group. In Sweden it is Konsumenverket. Here you go: https://www.konsumentverket.se/for-konsument/anmal-till-konsumentverket/anmalan/

[IanCahn]

Can we start a reddit movement to get action rolling. They should not be getting away with this false advertising? They have literally been ignoring this for 2 years now 

[IanCahn]

We need to take action now, otherwise other corporations will follow suit

[tomma81]

• Indeed, this **bleep**! I pay for premium but get commercials for swedish cell phobe Companies when listening to JRE?