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

[JBayudz]

If it's like a pop-up ads, it could be another app on your phone. Can you take a screenshot?

[Nico]

@Stefania74

Are you able to listen to playlists/songs without ads? Or does this happen only while listening to podcasts?
Make sure that you're logged into your premium account. ^^

[Cxavier]

As it says, I have premium. Sometimes, I will hear an ad in a podcast, and I think "oh hey, the Podcaster is playing this" NOPE. It says "ads by spotify". Please fix this because it's very annoying.

[jfdk81]

Hi Stefania74 and all

I have experienced the same over the last few days...and I am with you...it is really annoying and not what I signed up for. In my case, the advertisement is part of the podcast, so the only way to avoid it is to stop playing that podcast. 

I hope that Spotify is taking care of this soon.

Thanks all

[Astma]

Simple. I move to Apple Music. IT IS RIDICULOUS.

[serpentinegreen]

After looking into this I noticed how Spotify specifically mentions that you pay for ad-free music. A quick visit to the wayback machine tells you that this wording was different in September 2019 (at least for the UK site) when it read "No ad interruptions". In the later snapshots I viewed and on the current site the wording is about ad-free music only.

There's also marketing posts on Spotify's platform for advertisers about their new Streaming Ad Insertion technology from early 2020. The English article on SAI is not dated to March 2020 but the German translation is. There's no talk about pricing but I am guessing that Spotify doesn't offer this monetization service for free. After all a Bloomberg article suggests that Spotify is hoping podcast monetization will turn profitable for them soon.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I personally don't believe Spotify considers injecting podcast ads for premium users a problem that needs to be fixed.

[mrkmrkmrk]

This appears to be happening in Germany as well. I'm on a family premium plan but do receive ads in almost all podcasts that I'm listening to.
These ads are not part of the content but rather are delivered separately during 'ad brakes'. Most of the time it's ads about products that are generally speaking not available in Germany or the content delivered is in a foreign language.
Something does seem off ...

[Nicstick]

I understand it is the fault of the individual podcast production companies that we are getting ads even after paying premium. If this is true then, why do Spotify produced podcasts still have ads? 

[Millebc]

If this was really about supporting the content creators, why don't you pay them a fair share of the ones we pay TO NOT HEAR ADS?!?!

This reeks of greed and shifting blame. 

[Kissmyass3]

Plan

Premiym

Country

USA

Device

(iPhone 13

Operating System

(ios 15

i am premium so why are you playing ads in this video podcast

[Waltlojr]

After long and tedious research and lengthy interviews, I’ve reached the conclusion that they do it because they can.

[#13]

I’ve subscribed to my Spotify account but still I’m getting ads. Could you please check on it?
This is my transaction id T2212211427595821252448

[richnat64]

I just experienced ads whilst listening to a podcast whilst being a Spotify premium customer. Not only is it annoying, but it also affects the flow of listening and more importantly it raises the integrity of Spotify. I believe this is a poor business decision which may have long lasting consequences. Quite simply No ads means No ads. Please remove ads for all podcasts & music for premium customers.

[BadAds]

I'm paying for garbage, I'm not about to shop as ********* or buy a car not only are spotify wasting my time and negating the value of premium but they are ripping off their advertising customers. I'll be investigating alternatives.

[DougieBoy]

Interested in this reply -  it the adverts are still present in podcasts which are owned by Spotify (ie all the Gimlet Media podcasts). You’ve complete control of these - yet premium subscribers still get ads? 

[steenify]

Been unsubscribed for a few months now because of this. Still not fixed?

[cbchouinard]

I only listen to podcast on Spotify and decided to pay to get rid of advertisements. What a big disappointing surprise when i got an ad a couple of minutes later after going premium.

If this is the model and given I only listen to podcasts on Spotify I have zero incentive to continuing paying.

[mrkmrkmrk]

@MihailY could you possibly forward this to anyone responsible? Thank you!

[user-removed]

Hi Vonplaf,

I would recommend that you read the terms and conditions.

I understand why you would be surprised and upset by the appearance of ads, even if they just exist on exclusive or Spotify-produced podcasts. If you’re unwilling to live with it, you have options. 

I choose to continue with Spotify Premium regardless of ads on select podcasts because ads don’t bother me. They’re ubiquitous online, and facilitate the ability for content creators to make things I enjoy. 

Those are merely my opinions, and you’re certainly entitled to yours. 

Respectfully,

Tom

[jazdevi]

"They’re ubiquitous online, and facilitate the ability for content creators to make things I enjoy."

Yes, ads help pay for content. But the mistake you're making here is that you're completely forgetting about the fact that you're already directly paying for the content.

If you don't pay, they will get money from you by the use of ads.
If you pay, they get even more money, and because of that, they do not need to force ads on you. As such, they entice people to pay for the "ad-free" experience, in order to maximize profit.
But when it comes to podcasts, they still force ads on you, despite you already paying for an "ad-free" experience. Now they get a monthly payment from you, as well as ad-revenue. And that's called double-dipping.
Do you know why they're not in legal trouble for this? It's because they changed the premium benefit from "Ad-free EXPERIENCE" to "Ad-free MUSIC".

To make an analogy of how foolish you're being: It's like buying a hamburger and then sitting through 5 minutes of McDonald's ads to help support McDonalds, thinking they won't afford to keep making hamburgers otherwise.

The only thing you're supporting is Spotify, a company making hundreds of millions in net income every year. And you're defending their greed at the expense of every single user. So congratulations.