Turn down the volume of loud ads

[fractalblaze]

Prevent ads from being louder than the song that came before it. I know the point of the ads is to annoy us into paying up, but it can be very painful to turn on some relaxing tunes after school/work, turn up the volume a bit to hear the quieter details, and then have a surprise advertisement blaring some awful hiphop noise or a screaming spokesman blast 5 times louder than the song. Just normalize the volume of ads so that they aren't louder than the song they follow. Ads should be the same volume as the music.

This can be implemented by having an internal variable to measure the average volume within the song, and then set the ad's volume to that **bleep**. This way, classical concertos are recognized at the lower volume they are, and the next ad won't be 5 times louder than the loudest part of the song. Or just have a "advertisement volume equalizer" checkbox somewhere in the account settings. Or let us turn up the volume for just one particular quiet song within a playlist, so that everything else plays at normal volume.

To all fellow Free users, please take my survey on what you do when an ad is BLASTED at you- I'm sending the responses to the companies being promoted by obnoxious ads, to let them know that loud ads reflect badly on them when we rip off our headphones. Also, contact the companies whose ads are BLASTED at you, and ask them to tell Spotify not to blast their ads. Shari's Berries apologized to us, and a McDonalds rep said they only design ads. Keep it up! Contact the marketing department of these companies and politely ask them to demand a normal volume for their ad.

Update Sept 27, 2017: Thank you so much for taking my survey about how you react to loud ads - it has 1,571 responses! Here are the results - please show these to companies whose ads are blasted at you!

 How Spotify users react to loud ads

Answers to Other (Please specify)
10/14/2014 1:11 PM: I tear my headphones off, then lower volume on spotify, then press play (cause lowering volume to bareable pauses the ad), wait for it to finish then pause the song after the ad so I can turn the volume up again

10/1/2014 4:29 PM: I take my ear buds out, then stop listening to the service. I **bleep** my hearing.

9/26/2014 12:12 PM: Contact the company and point out that I am going to avoid their products until their ads are played at a reasonable level.

9/20/2014 12:06 PM: click on the ad thumbnail, because it makes the ad stop playing

9/18/2014 11:25 AM: go to youtube or my ipod and listen to music from my playlists

6/9/2014 5:51 AM: have a hotkey and i mute it completely, then there is a timer that umutes it after 1 minute (only for loud ads)

4/14/2014 8:47 AM: turn off, switch to itunes

3/18/2014 1:27 PM: Remove headphones to avoid inner ear damage AND lower the volume on my device + lower the volume on Spotify to avoid annoying my coworkers, as the ads can be heard across the office because they're so LOUD

[Trizthe1]

I completely mute the sound on my device, or pull earphones out. So I bet the companies behind the ads aren't happy with that. And yes I would personally don't mind listening to ads if the colume was decent and not giving me anxiety and heart attacks. Really for people with mental ailments such as anxiety this is not very nice of spotify. It makes me consider their rivals in fact.. I'm truly annoyed with this, if they truly valued their customers they would not do this..

[PancakeScience]

It greatly saddens me that this thread is still active and still no resolution. The majority of my recent playlist has been very quite (classical music, old showtunes, and many tracks with dialog are very quiet). The change from quiet tracks I need to raise volume to hear and deafening ads is very damaging. I love the service, hate what it does to my hearing. Get in as many votes as we can everyone.

[tpetuu]

I am mostly listening to Spotify via a browser player, via headphones, and the level of ALL ADS went to awfully loud over the course of the last couple of weeks. I even recognise the ads I heard a month or so ago, and they sound much louder now. it's louder than any music in my playlist. Even the death metal. It's like their level has been up 50% just to make the experience worse. I would never consider such an annoying method of pushing my products. So, Spotify, something your sales people might need to consider: would an advertiser give you money to annoy potential customers? I don't think so.

[William_Hinman]

The ads are annoying enough as it is.  There no need to up the volume on them.  I would love to subscribe, but my budget does not allow for it - otherwise, I would.  Just to let you know fractalblaze, your survey no longer works.  I know this is an old thread, but the problem still exists.  When the loud blaring ads pop up they sometimes will even cut off the very end of the songs.  This is unacceptable.  Also, when they do come on oftentimes turning down the volume bar on the Spotify page is not sufficient enough I also have to turn down the speaker volume as well.  And, surprisingly enough the following ad blares loudly again just as before I turn down the volume.  In fact, I have to turn down the volume at least 3 times for each ad.  Actually, with subsequent ads, I have to turn the volume up on the Spotify page first and then turn it down to get it to respond - ridiculous!!!!

[Trollol746]

Trying to.put my daughter to sleep to spotify sleep lullibies and all of the sudden ads are blasted loud as **bleep** and wake her right back up

[samma2017]

Can you tell me when this is going to be fixed?  This greatly diminishes user experience.  Do the ads pay you less if you respect our right to control the volume in which we listen to the music and the ads you play?  I appreciate the service you provide, but I will gladly leave the community if you as a company think that it's ok to blast ads at your listerners.

[whatever14]

I wonder if these apply to Spotify?  You'd think they would

https://www.fcc.gov/media/policy/loud-commercials

http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/television/publicit/prev.htm 

As well, even if you insist on blasting the ads, at least have the volume go back down for the song that plays after the ad.  It's very annoying to have to constantly adjust the volume after every ad.

[rootheelf]

Everyone I know mute every single ad

[cjallen]

Yeah I remember when I had Spotify free how annoying this was! Thats one of the reasons i upgraded!

[punapiste]

It's funny to see that this "idea" is from 2012 and it STILL hasn't been resolved. Ultimately I think the problem is Spotify's to fix not the advertisers, so it would be nice to FINALLY see something being done about it.