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

[petero9]

All of the ads hurt my ears and make me cry.  Except for the Squarespace ad.  That one has nice, soothing background music and has an acceptable volume level.  Most of the ads are so repetitive that I wonder if they actually help or are instead hurting sales.  I wouldn't have purchased any of the products that are being advertised and I think I've only ever listened to one of the advertised songs, but I realize that despite being in one of the main target demographics, I don't share tastes with many of my peers.  Still, those ads are darn repetitive.  And you know what, Spotify?  While I'm using private mode, I don't need to have you advertise private mode.  Thanks!

[Spotted]

My ears are fine for now (as far as I can tell) but can someone please sue Spotify already so legislators can add radio to this: http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/loud-commercials

Unfortunately, it seems like that's what it will take.

(edit)

For now, it will help to file your complaint with the FCC here: http://www.fcc.gov/complaints

[Zeringue]

I just started listening, and I am already looking for this thread regarding the loudness of the commercials.  I thought there has be legislation passed to required the traditional mediums to lower the volumes of Ads? 

[hans-jürgen]

Something happened with the volume of external ads (Beck's Bier, Audi) in Germany in the last days, as they blast out several times louder than the normal music now. The internal Spotify ads about how to use it etc. are OK though. In my Preferences I have disabled "Set the same volume level for all tracks", as this was suggested as a solution for too loud ads by a moderator or developer in a forum thread.

[fractalblaze]

Guys, maybe it will help Spotify's "investigation" into the ad volume if we post some of the worst, loudest ad offenders in this thread. I'll start:

There's a Spotify Premium ad, the one with the too-excited girl narrating it, that's louder than the rest of the music.

[petero9]

HEY EVERYBODY HATES PEOPLE WHO TYPE IN ALL CAPS, SO I'M TYPING IN ALL CAPS TO SHOW HOW TERRIBLE THE LOUD COMMERCIALS ARE.  SERIOUS PAIN IN MY EARS WHEN LISTENING TO THEM.  THEY ARE DANGEROUSLY LOUD.  I SHOULDN'T BE ABLE TO CLEARLY HEAR THEM THROUGH MY EARBUDS WHEN THEY ARE LYING OVER THREE FEET (THAT'S OVER ONE METER TO YOU EVIL EUROPEANS WHO APPARENTLY THOUGHT EAR DAMAGE IS GOOD).  But seriously, I'm pretty sure Square Space is my favorite company in the world now because their commercials are at a good level.

[jgunaratne]

I don't mind the ads, but please don't make them so loud and use better targeting. I take off my earphones whenever I hear that stupid Advanced Auto Parts commercial. I can't understand why I'm being targeted since I live in NYC and don't own a car. Spotify needs to be smarter about targeting ads. I log in using Facebook, they have my personal data. Spotify, be smart and use some of that data to figure out better ad targeting. NYC subway riders under 35 with no car -- probably not the best target for auto parts.

[fractalblaze]

I agree, jgunaratne, but ad-targetting is different from ad loudness. Ad targetting would involve Spotify's marketing department, but ad loudness is just a programming thing. Let's make a new topic for ad-targetting.

[thundereggo]

Yep.  Just signed up to Spotify and the VOLUME of ADVERTISEMENTS is SO LOUD that if I turn up the volume on my stereo to hear the nice classical music station (thanks Spotify!), the ADS RATTLE THE WINDOWS!  Does not help my mindset for programming.

I would consider subscribing to avoid ads, but this is more than just an ads problem -- also a volume problem in general.  Some songs I have to crank all possible volumes up.  Then the next AD BLASTS AND DESTROYS!

  I'm running off Linux Firefox Mozilla latest stable.

[kwes]

Yes, the volume is obnoxiously loud on commercials.  They do the same thing on TV.  On TV its done on purpose because it increases the effectiveness of the ads.  Spotify is probably the same way.  It's really starting to annoy me and I'm thinking of using another service.