[All Platforms][Podcasts] Podcast in Russia

[BlessedBaka]

Hi!

Make possible to listen podcasts for Russian users of Spotify.

[1215940855]

Spotify signing up top podcasters and making them lose hundreds of millions of listeners in the non-western countries. 

[Supchik]

oh wow this is on 11th page of 'ideas' guess we'll be waiting for some time for Spotify to even notice the problem 😞

[vdrandom]

I'm pretty sure it is intentional. One of these two:

* a marketing kind of thing, they wait to secure some exclusive Russian podcasts to launch the feature with a bang

* a technical thing, their servers may have issues handling larger podcast files

Given that, I don't think it's technical, since their infrastructure is massive.

Also, apparently Deezer provides both music and podcasts, pricing is similar. The catalogue is lacking here and there, but generally is fine.

[iskatsu]

Of course it is intentional. I too think they want some russian podcasts to be available on release. But the thing is there are almost no good russian podcasts and they can spend ages searching for one. Meanwhile Russian who know English a little are effectively blocked from interesting podcasts and features. This is not good.

[Travoltus]

So, I'm just here, to add some oil to the fire. Every time I see JRE clips on YouTube I'm reminded of fact that Spotify (to which I pay "Premium" subscription) decided what it's cool to just take content from tonns of people and region lock it. 

All I want to say, please provide Podcast feature in Russia and other region locked countries, thank you. 

[partoftheworlD]

The funny thing about this problem is that it could have been solved quickly, as api.spotify allows you to get information about podcasts and listen to them by fixing a couple of requests even in Russia. What's stopping it from being made official without making users wait for such an important thing, which is available in any other music listening service? 

[GeorgySerga]

Extra comment. It's been more than 8 months for a feature which doesn't even need extra development. What's the reason, can you give a real update?

[kreo]

So darn stupid. I don't even care so much about the "exclusive" podcasts, but what the **bleep** is wrong with the free ones? Like Mozilla's IRL podcast, which is available for free, but I cannot open it in Spotify. This is outright DENIAL OF SERVICE for MY OWN DAMN MONEY. Should consider the folk's recommendation to switch to Apple Music or something else where I can listen to any darn podcasts I want from any damn country I'm in.

[Alex_Kis]

I'm already tired of this. Why am I honestly paying every month and can't listen to podcasts in Russia? This is discrimination!

[Jacob]

Updated on 2021-05-20

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