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

[aaron_hogan]

Plan

Premium

Country

US

Device

iPhone, macOS

My Question or Issue

I am suddenly hearing ads on a strictly ad-free podcast. I understand that ads may be read, or dynamically inserted by podcasts when they choose to advertise. However, this podcast (Uhh Yeah Dude) is specifically and deliberately ad-free since 2006. They have certainly not enabled ads.

In the past few days, Spotify (and only Spotify) has been inserting ads for various things like McDonalds into this podcast – something I'm sure the creators would definitely have not sanctioned, and would not approve of.

Note: The podcast in question did recently start taking advantage of the video podcast feature, and I wonder if Spotify has decided to begin running ads to recoup the cost of the video feature (the ads began about the same time as the video feature was enabled for this podcast).

Regardless, ads should not be run for podcasts without their consent, and certainly not for premium subscribers – given that the podcast has purposefully never enabled ads.

Is it Spotify policy to run ads regardless of creators preferences? Are ads in any way connected to the enabled video feature?

[rbnz]

Poor move, Spotify. Pay podcasters more and ban ads for those who pay for a premium account! At least the ads added in the local language, this is totally unfair on your part. If this continues, I'll switch to another platform in a month, and so will all my friends and family. What a bad service.

[SinPanda94]

Plan

Premium

Country

Ireland

Device

Acer Nitro 5

Operating System

Windows 11

My Question or Issue

I am a confirmed Premium account holder but I still get ads directly from Spotify interrupting my podcasts and after podcasts end. I am using the Desktop app for Spotify. These are ads directly from Spotify the advertiser interrupting the play of the podcast. They are not ad reads or host endorsed ads inserted into the runtime of the podcast. I cannot skip these ads as it says "Your podcast will continue after the break" so I am forced to listen to the ad in full in order to continue listening to the podcast or listen to the next one. The issue started yesterday after having no previous issues with this and it still persists today after troubleshooting. I have confirmed my Premium plan is still active and that I am listening as a Premium user. I have updated the desktop app to the latest version. I have logged out of Spotify and back in. None of the above has changed anything. I pay for Spotify Premium monthly in order to listen to music and podcasts without interruption, and now the only podcast I use Spotify for is being treated as if I am not a Premium user.

[darkknight1882]

I think I'm going to start using BBC sounds to listen to podcasts from now on, even with the limitations of only BBC shows. The shoe horning of adverts in every possible way to podcasts ruins the experience. What with the podcaster's themselves promoting sponsored products I feel like I'm listening to one long ad break.

[#6]

Probably every other episode of any podcast has an ad. No point in paying if I'm still getting ads lmao

[130z]

their even increases prices and this is still a thing. Yeah i’m switching to youtube premium.

[dionysis_gt]

Please add an option to filter podcasts that choose to inject ads so I can exclude them from search results and generally deprioritize them in my listening queue priority.

I don't actually mind one or two narrowly on topic host read ads. Lex Fridman handles podcast sponsor reads about as well as it can be done, but the injected barely associated ads at elevated volume are just offensive and avoiding them is a primary reason why I keep a subscription. I don't want to hear about NetSuite by Oracle even one more time. Their ads unsell their product.

This is a strong reason for me to cancel a subscription if I can find an actually ad-free service for this content.

[#9]

I have Premium for an year still running and in the last days i get Spotify Advertisement between the Podcasts i hear.

[RighteousViking]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

I'm just here to toss one more match onto this bonfire of a thread. Spotify is absolutely stumbling into a class action lawsuit from, at the very least, all users in the United States. There really is no excuse for ads to be inserted anywhere in podcasts or music for Premium users when it is advertised as an ad free experience. 

[tifa8572]

Complain…complain….COMPLAIN!!!!

DO IT NOW !!!

Best wishes

[vbigfish]

Besides Spotifys attempt to play innocent about podcast adds, and besides the fact this this is patently a lie (last night I was listening to an English rendtion of War of the Worlds that was interupted by Brazilian CocaCola adds in Portuguese! and I'm pretty sure the producers of the book had no way of knowing I'm in Brazil), what I'd like to know is is there a difference between audiobooks and podcasts? Are any audiobooks not podcasts? If there is a difference how can we, as paying customers tell the difference?

[tifa8572]

Hi

It doesn’t really matter.
If you pay for a service without ads, there should be no ads.
Hope that makes sense?
Best wishes

Tifa

[#14]

Ongoing publicity issue on a premium account.
A publicity is popping up out of nowhere while the selected private playlist is on.

[pajamas4688]

Having the same issue here, but with podcasts.

My wife and I have been Premium for years and a few months ago we switched to the Duo plan. Since yesterday we started hearing advertisements on podcasts. They are advertisements not related to the podcast or the creator itself. Random, at the beginning or the middle. It happens on different devices.

Is this a mistake? Should I report this to Spotify? Should I ask for my money back?

[pajamas4688]

My wife and I have been Premium for years and a few months ago we switched to the Duo plan. Since yesterday we started hearing advertisements on podcasts. They are advertisements not related to the podcast or the creator itself. Random, at the beginning or the middle. It happens on different devices.

Is this a mistake? Should I report this to Spotify? Should I ask for my money back?

Thank you.

[decibel1987]

I have had spotify since the beginning (when you had to get an invite to get it). I started paying my subscription as soon as that was possible, to get rid of the annoying interupting ads, while listening to music.

During the pandemic I started listening to podcasts, where my favourite one is Conan O'Briens podcast. It had some host read ads in some episodes in the first year or so. Then at one point they stopped and I was in heaven.

Now, since about a month ago I started getting ads again and even more annoying ads than ever. These are completely random and not even host read ads, which makes this **bleep** even worse.

I give you a month to fix this or I will cancel my subscription and never come back. Thanks for listening to your long time consumers.

[tifa8572]

Hi

Thanks for that.
Don’t cancel just yet…I believe Spotify are about to have legal action taken against them.
It can’t come too soon!

Tifa

[Entropy01]

The embedding of ads in podcasts is starting to become the norm and it really creates a need for an AI option to auto-skip the ad content. We pay for premium because we hate ads, and having to (pull over to the side of the road) and (angrily) skip these things manually every time interrupts the listening experience and also often skips part of the content.

I suggest Spotify introduces an optional auto-skip 3rd party spam feature before the competition does.

[tifa8572]

I fully agree.
However, given that Spotify will be purchasing the broadcasting rights (probably by number of streams) they simply need to tell the first party (the podcasters) that they will not purchase unless they’re ad free podcasts. It’s REALLY easy to edit out embedded ads, so I don’t accept the argument that “the podcasts come with ads from the podcasters”
That’s just nonsense.
The way I see it, the podcasters are being paid twice:
Once by their advertisers
And again by Spotify for the rights to stream.
(But of course, it’s US who’s paying!)
And we’re supposed to accept this?
It’s a disgrace.

Anyway, best wishes all

Tifa

[Kpfinney]

Spotify's ads on podcasts are extremely annoying.  These are not the same style of ads on most podcasts.  I can handle ads, but these are extra loud, and grating like the 90s Nickelodeon frenetic assault to the senses.  If you're going to make premium subscribers have to ensure ads please use your power to force the ad agencies to switch it up.  I listen to Spotify a lot less than I would otherwise and seriously consider dumping it all together because of how annoying, and at times, rage inducing they are.