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

[Vonplaf]

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.

[Cauca]

This just happened to me with a Spanish speaking add on a an English speaking podcast.

It's a really crappy feeling to be a paying customer and get ads out of nowhere, clearly facilitated by Spotify. I am a super early user, been a fan of the company and the app for many years, been paying religiously all along. Truly disappointed to get ads. Starting to feel for the first time ever that I might look for alternatives.

[Trent1989]

After years of subscribing and still getting ads in my media i have decided to cancel my subscription and lodge a formal complaint against Spotify with the ACCC(Australian competition and consumer commission) about your practices.

If you think the ACCC is a joke just ask Apple, Google, Facebook, Sony and many others how their day in court went.

[RemoveAdsonPremium]

So essentially what we are paying for (especially those of us that got Spotify Premium mostly for the podcasts) is to get targeted advertising. The very thing we are trying to avoid by getting premium 🤔. Then we can pretty much listen to the same podcasts on their native websites with ads and not pay for a "premium" service. 🤔

[polleman]

Today I started streaming bed time stories for my little kid. Before the story started, an ad came up on the screen i am streaming to with its own picture / album art and the ad played out before the bedtime story started and the album art changed to the chosen story. How is that not playing ads to Premium Subscribers and how has that anything to do with the content creator ?

[Hizzie]

You guys are all nuts.  The ads are for the content creators.  By choosing to not listen to those who have ads you're basically saying you like their stuff but you're not willing to support them.  You can literally just skip the ads if you want.  And you can sure try and sue, but I don't know a sensible lawyer that would take this to court, just ones that would take your money on behalf of your ignorance.  If it means that much to you, just use a different platform, but don't complain when you realize they ALL have ads, because these content creators can't eat off of your thoughts and prayers.  Jfc grow up and get some real problems. 

[Waltlojr]

With respect. As to the podcasts I initially posted about, Spotify IS the content creator (via wholly owned Gimlet). And even where Spotify ISNT the content creator, Spotify receives (massive) revenues from Premium (ie ad free) subscribers. One would think that the content creators would in turn be paid by SPOTIFY (out of the aforesaid revenue). Instead, Spotify takes the subscription money then compensates content creators (perhaps solely) via ad revenues.

The above may be inaccurate. Subscribers may never know because it’s a question Spotify hasn’t answered here on their own platform.

[Rowdeeplay]

Maybe Spotify needs to pay podcast creators for premium customers so they don’t have to rely on advertising. I get that some of the podcast creators need a way to create income and i support that. However I already pay $120/yr for no ads and I see no reason why some of that can go to the podcasts that I listen to. 

[iwasnothere]

I don't think your answer fully explains why the ad is there. Yes it is true that some ads are spoken by the podcasters. But it is evident that an English speaking or more specifically an American podcaster would most likely not have an ad that is Danish integrated in their podcast. Therefore, I think a further explanation would be necessary because it seems as though soon Spotify will ask us to pay an additional amount to avoid ads on podcasts even though we are supposedly paying for a no ad experience.

[AlredmondIII]

No, Jeremy. Not at all helpful. I understand content creators but Spotify shouldn't be double dipping Premium members. A Spotify Original shouldn't have commercials because Spotify has already been paid. This is ridiculous & I'm looking for an alternative. 

[Lewey1]

This is pretty terrible. I'm considering cancelling premium because of this. What's the point in paying?

[talofateine]

This is so annoying.  I'm all for podcasters being able to monetise and have sustainable podcasts as content producers.  Perhaps, Spotify should increase the amount of income that Podcasters receive and also limit the number of minutes for sponsorship.  Also - scrap the adverts, the localised (or non localised) recorded ones, and have the podcaster read their own sponsorship supporters (with a maximum time limit).... in the mean time, I'm on the lookout for another podcast service provider.

[arthur138]

Any word on that subreddit? It had been a while since I haven't listened to podcasts in Spotify and yesterday I nearly lost my mind when that happened. They must change that BS now.

[McBlavak]

Just canceled my subscription for this reason. Spotify must think we customers are idiots.

[LilSwampKing]

You can literally skip the ads 🤦‍♂️

[jazdevi]

Yes. You also don't need to pay for premium, because you can just turn off the audio while the ads play.
In fact, you can also avoid the ads by not using Spotify at all! So smart!
And yes, in case you can't figure it out, I AM making fun of you.

I'll explain it to you in a simple way, so even you can understand:
People are complaining because there are ads. Even though they PAY to not have ads in their streams.
Trying to negate that by saying "You can put in manual effort into skipping ads on every podcast" is the most stupid response to this situation I could have possible imagined. so congratulations on that.

It's like paying for extra cheese on your pizza and they give you directions to the store where you can buy more cheese.
It's not what you paid for and it requires extra effort on your part. Who the **bleep** would find that acceptable, aside from you?

If you pay for the removal of ads, you should not have to manually skip ads.

Anyway, I don't know how to explain it in an easier way for you.
Hopefully this will be enough for someone at your level.

@McBlavak
Well, it's quite ironic reading your post now, seeing as the comment right after yours proved you wrong.
Turns out that Spotify customers are idiots.

[Ngendron]

Thank you for this info…. I’m new to Spotify (this time around) and I’m NOT SATISFIED with these annoying ADS… I may go to another platform and thanks for your research…. SPOTIFY should listen to Us, disgruntled customers… It’s NOT what we paid for…. 🥺

[schwalls13]

Hi Spotify this is a real concern and has been years now and has not been resolved.
We pay monthly fees for Premium. This means NO ADS. Remove the ads from podcasts for Premium users. This is unethical business and you are essentially double charging customers 

[Soonerprid3]

This reason doesn't hold water. I'm listens to an original Spotify podcast. So according to your reply Spotify is making money off of me twice if it's a single ad. What's your reply to that?

[BlazingSoup]

Just got 3 back to back advertisements from Spotify, in addition to the one within the podcast, for a podcast that Spotify advertised (how convenient). Pretty silly to play semantics to claim podcasts and music are two separate things. Even Apple podcasts has less adverts then this, not going to be listening to podcasts through Spotify until things change.

[steenify]

I also cancelled my subscription as soon as I started hearing ads in my own language during podcasts.

There is no other explanation than greed for this behaviour. I won't support that.

P.s. on the recommendation of some folks here. I'm on Tidal now - seems just as good. Spotify is not a hard app to develop, there are plenty of competitors.

Vote with your money.