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.

[Vonplaf]

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!

[Ritariina]

Yes, I too was appalled when I suddenly heard a regular radio ad in my native language before a podcast, even though I have premium. I used to come to spotify to precisely because I could avoid the ads that were on YouTube etc. Soooo disappointing. And don’t you pretend like you’re doing it out of the goodness of your hearts, you’re definitely making money off of the elected ads somehow, and you do have control of it since you are providing the option. I guess you want to get in on the ad money that podcasters are making by doing ad reads, that you have missed out on thus far? What a greedy greedy bunch you are. And is it a slippery slope. We’re gonna get premium with some ads and super premium that actually doesn’t have any ads? Fix this before it’s too late, there are plenty of music & podcast providers to choose from…

[jonasterscat]

                                          I actually thought there might be something wrong with my premium subscription that I was still getting several minutes of unrelated ads between my podcast episodes. But no, to my disgust apparently the money I'm paying to not listen to effing ads is bs. I have no problem listening to ads that are part of a podcast, that's up to the creators and more power to them, but these ads I'm getting in between are often all about getting ad free listening with spotify or about health insurance or self help books, or bs utterly unrelated to my podcast. What the effing dikbuts.     

[atillman89]

I don't listen to many podcasts, but I hate that Spotify puts a 30-second ad in my 2-MINUTE podcast when I'm a premium user?!? That bloats the podcast 25% with ads when I'm paying Spotify for 0% ads. Why is it okay for Spotify to put their own ad in my ad-free podcast when I'm paying to have an ad-free experience? Shame on you, Spotify...

[Dp982017]

I also thought i had some technical issue but just now realized this is deliberate. Ads really ruin my day and thats why i pay for premium, i'm so disappointed. I't is ok for podcaster to read ads but thats it, nothing more is needed. I start looking for alternatives because this is unacceptable, i hope spotify relizes this.

[AdsDoNotBelong]

It is a slap in the face to the customers that Spotify now actively are using resources to deliver ads to users who specifically pays to not get any ads. I think this is the end of the podcast era when we start seeing more time spend on ads in podcasts than on the average YouTube video. 
Spotify really need to step up the game to avoid sliding into ad **bleep**. 

[lasseoskari]

This is completely ridiculous and unacceptable. What makes it really pathetic is the way spotify spins this as an option that the creators are in control of. If they're looking for ways to attract high quality podcast creators maybe they should consider giving them a bigger cut. 
I'm sure there are simple tools made for extracting your spotify playlists and opting for another service that doesn't run ads for their premium members.

[Waltlojr]

Conviction is a Gimlet-produced (in other words Spotify produced) podcast. It is littered with ads even for premium subscribers. When you say the podcast creators direct you to include ads so they can “monetize and live off” their work, how does that work with a Gimlet-produced podcast like Conviction??  Sounds a real bait and switch for premium members. I can hear the business meeting at Spotify - “we told them they could listen to MUSIC commercial free - podcasts aren’t music - load em up!!

[No1234567556756]

If you want them to live off their content why don't you pay them? Seems like the only difference between podcasts and music, is that the music industry has better representation and you can take advantage of consumers and creators alike as a result. Nice one 

[Cavo1990]

They just want to wash their hands of that. I will research the laws in my country Canada about that, it's not a cheap app!!

[newchick23]

Spotify should not allow podcasters to advertise. It’s extremely annoying and goes against the ad-free promise for Premium users. I’d appreciate if you could forward this complaint to the CEO. Seems like someone is “double dipping” to make more profits. Seems sketchy. Instead they should pay the podcasters not have them rely on ads that are passed to Premium holders.

[Waltlojr]

Further complication is that, at least as to Conviction, the podcast appears to be produced not by a third party, but rather by Gimlet, which is wholly owned by Spotify.

[newchick23]

A concrete example 

“Serial Killers” is a Spotify original. It has multiple advertisements inc. Infiniti, State Farm, Trolli sour worms, etc. With Premium membership, you still have to listen to annoying advertisements multiple times during one episode 

[jazdevi]

Thought this was a bug.

Turns out it's just Spotify being greedy little shits without any moral integrity.

This is how you get replaced. If you keep the same mediocre service or, for example, slip through ads to premium users while also having the balls to raise premium prices... well, that's just prime time for a fresh fruit to take over and replace the corrupt, rotting fruit.

Time to start actively looking for a streaming service that keeps their promises and has at least basic business ethics.

Also, on an unrelated note, the community profile has a freaking pronoun selection.

Absolute proof of a company's moral decay and lack of a potential future.

Support mental illness by funding the research for treatments. Don't play along with their delusions and pander to their absolute insanity.

I've lost all faith in you now. I'll start looking for a replacement so I can cancel my subscription. You do not deserve my money.

[newchick23]

If you find out about any other subscription service, please blast it out! I’d like to upgrade fruit too 

[jazdevi]

I switched to Tidal and cancelled my Spotify premium services.

Tidal offers far higher audio quality at a cheaper price, and your artists and playlists can be imported from Spotify with the click of a button.

For me, it was a direct upgrade since all of the music and artists I listen to were available on Tidal.
But this may not be the case for you.

Cheers for joining me in taking a stand against a company that has gone corrupt from their success.

[newchick23]

Wonderful! I’m going to check this out and am motivated to make the switch! Thank you too for raising awareness to combat corrupt business practices. Such a shame! 

[Waltlojr]

Yes me as well. I’m ready to move on.

[thereedzilla]

So essentially, Spotify has created a platform that allows some content creators (podcasts) to monetize 100% of listeners externally, while other content creators (musicians) can only be paid for play count by Spotify? Is there anything stopping a musician from recording an advertisement as track 4 of their next release and putting an end to the ad-free experience altogether?

[boat_]

I was listening to a meditation podcast and having a max volume ad about laptops play during the silent bit really hurt my ears and took me out of it.

[thereedzilla]

Who needs meditation when you can just have more screen time on a new laptop!