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

[fractalblaze]

Anyone else want to see this?

[rykee17]

Yes I think this would be a great idea. I came on here for this exact reason, the ads are so much louder than the music I listen to. It's frustrating enough with some of the ads being completely irrelevant to me, but I would be ok with them if they weren't blasting through my speakers. 

[user-removed]

This is not going happen...

Advertisements are often annoying, loud sounded. Why? Think about. If the ads are clear to all free users, who would buy the paid service?

I purchased Premium, because I tired to ads. Now I use Premium since 2010 December. Yes, Windows Phone is good, but app bad. But I like my new phone and my heart says that I should continue with Spotify.

I know everything about Spotify. All my friends are asking from me when problems with Spotify. I know all about Spotify. I do not like to leave service.

Spotify please update your WP app.

[katalina77]

I completely agree.

I listen to Spotify on headphones while I'm working. I set the music to a low to moderate volume, but when the advertisements come on they actually HURT MY EARS. Besides being painful, these loud, sudden noises could potentially damage a listener's hearing.

Maybe Spotify could emulate the new law that regulates the volume of television commercials. It's set to go into effect in December: http://www.suntimes.com/business/9422621-420/fcc-adopts-ban-on-tv-ads-that-are-louder-than-shows.htm...

[jsrobinson1]

Agreed. Yes, I'm using the free version of Spotify, and don't get me wrong - I think it's a great service for streaming music. But seriously, most of these ads actually hurt my ears when I am listeing with headphones. That's just ridiculous. The increased volume of ads don't make me more inclined to buy the sponsored product. In fact, the loud volume makes me NOT want to buy that product or do whatever it is the ad is suggesting.  The only thing the blaring ads incline me to do is go "**bleep**!" and tear off my headphones as fast as possible; and then come to this forum and write a post to tell you about it.  So, this volume tactic actually has the reverse effect on me, and probably many others. 

Again, love spotify -- just hate the volume of these ads. As the streaming industry becomes more competitive (i.e. even Apple announced one in development), users (such as me) may go to whichever service won't give them hearing damage.

Thanks for listening.

[theflashnky]

Yes, they are way too loud. Sometime really hurting my ears. I just pull my headphones off every time.  Your commercail sponsers should be aware of this too because the ads simply don't work if nobody is listening to them. Please turn them down.

[user-removed]

You can turn ads down - just subscribe to service. 😉

[efm]

I do understand the reasoning behind the volume of the ads, but a relative adjustment that would save the ears of listeners of classical music does not remove the effect of this reasoning, it only removes the discrimination between music genres. 🙂

I love your product and I subscribe the parts of the year when I have more time to listen to music and can benefit from the app on the move, but when I'm on the free service, this is the single most annoying thing with Spotify for me. I joined the Spotify community just to write this post. There are a few other posts here with the same idea.

Tack så mycket and keep up the good work! I hope our voices are heard 🙂

[azza]

i would even be more inclined to hear double the adds, if they were simply the same volume as the rest of the sounds. one ear-shattering blast from removing program, and i am not threatening, i rly dont wanna remove it. i love the program its exposed me to new music and expanded my musical taste, itseasy to find songs to share songs and i love spotify. please do something about the painfull volume of advertisements ]=

[felliax]

I listen to classical music with head phones, and the ads are so loud they are painful. I increase the volume of soft music unconsciously, and then when the ads play I have to rip the headphones out of my ears. They are so loud that I can understand them even with the headphones off.

I understand the solution is to just get premium, but I doubt the people paying for ads want their products to be associated with pain. The spotify premium ads are some of the worst.