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

[mmarchin]

A Chase Rice "Eyes on you tour" ad in Kansas City was way too loud.

[mmarchin]

Also the kensey 6 ad something something overland park theater is SO LOUD. Kansas City market.

[bdett15]

All the ads are too loud, there is no use in starting to list them.  Was there even an adjustment made?  I am listening to quiet chill music, and then an ad comes blasting.  You have definitely not implemented anything.

[Silas]

The recent Bruce Springstien on broadway ad that you keep spamming over and over is nearly double the volume of the music. It has blasted my eardrums every time it comes up and that is many times an hour. You are not convincing me to pay for anything with this approach. I complained about this 5 or 6 years ago and it got better for a while but seems to be an increasing problem again.

[SeffPrime]

Picture this , I am gaming , gonna play spotify:track:3XfvTelX1xYLgwgpzfd8qi , I wanna turn it up I live in Canada and have been gaming for months due to surgery and I need to wake up and get into the action. I am drinking coffee,  smoking some recreational legalized weed using my Razar kraken 7.1 v2 gaming headset with an audio booster equipped on my MSI motherboard to give it more juice. Now all of a sudden I get an ad, the equalizer on my gaming headset doesnt work well with the ad, IT SOUNDS BAD REAL BAD, NOW I HAVE TO LISTEN TO THIS MADNESS FULL BASS AND TREBLE MY EARS ARE BLEED I AM IN THE GAME,,, PUBG WAIT!! I SEE A CRATE ! I HAVNT SEEN ONE IN DAYS!!!! I HAVE TO SHOOT THE GUYS IN FRONT OF ME AND THE ONES FLANKING ME BUT MY EARS ARE BLEEDING FROM THIS AD!! I AM DIEING IN REALITY!!!!! AWWWW !!!!! AWWW!!!!!!, I CANT ALT TAB BECAUSE IF I DO ILL DIE BECAUSE MY COMPUTER IS SLOW, FK IT ALT TAB, TURN DOWN THE VOLUME thx god i am better now , alt tab back in, you guessed it! dead! I lose , you lose, the ad loses, where all fkin losers lol. Forgive my stupid language I gotta paint a picture and a little comedy doesnt hurt. I dunno what to do, you cant equalize the volume because it controlled with my headset, maybe monitoring the sound level , and adapting your ad's to be louder or quiter might work. I dunno I am winging it, but a major upgrade to audio costumization using your software might help and create some kool features for everyone. Keep updating.

[sukerjoe]

And yet, here we are 7 years later, same issue. The ads don't get listened better for being louder...

[ben_de_vette]

I am thinking about leaving Spotify for what it is and listen to other
streaming services. As it is now, some Ads are unbearably loud. Each and
every half an hour I have a shock moment.

[seabertson]

"Implemented". Completely false. This is still a problem in 2019. What surprises me is that who ever is paying for ads isn't complaining as well. Annoying ads are definitely not impressing anyone.

[Ellusion]

I very much doubt you have "normalized" the ad volume. I listen to my music at full blast, cause y'know that what metal heads do. And the music level is perfect that way. HOWEVER, once the ad comes up? BOOM my ears are being blasted. Like the ads are atleast half higher then the music. Fix it before your **bleep** ads cost me my hearing.
This isnt like Ads on TV, we dont just walk away from or headphones when ads come on. We have them on our **bleep** heads, playing in our ears. We dont need someone screaming at high volume "HI COME TO FORD AND BUY THIS CAR." "OOO LA LA THIS NEW MOVIE" Like jeeze, turn it down holy heck.

[meahtenoha]

Hey folks, quick March 2019 updates. We are investigation reports of specific ads being too loud. If you could post the following details in this thread it would be appreciated. 

• The market/ country you're in
• What the ad was for
• What music/ podcast you were listening to
• Did it have disruptive sound effects like car noises? 

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Ongoing-Issues/Turn-down-the-volume-of-loud-ads/idi-p/4683993