Premium subscription but still hearing ads on Spotify Original podcasts

[tori_higgins]

Plan: Spotify Premium with Hulu

Country: United States

Device: iPhone 13

Operating System: iOS 15.1.1

Daily listener for the Spotify original podcast, "Leo Today." Despite my premium subscription, nearly every episode I listen to has a third party advertisement interrupting the podcast audio even though it's an original Spotify podcast.

Why am I paying a premium subscription to not hear advertisements while Spotify is producing original content that contains interrupting ads? There are images of sponsors cluttering the podcast landing page. It's one thing to hear interrupting ads in the middle of a production, but to always see them on a podcast page? Even in offline mode? On a Spotify ORIGINAL podcast page? 

I do not understand. Either this is exclusively a Parcast podcast and the "Spotify Original" text needs to vanish to prevent false advertising, or Spotify is ripping off their premium subscribers based on semantics, since the argument is music listening experience is not interrupted for premium subscribers, not necessarily podcast listening.

Why not offer a more expensive subscription option that is truly completely ad free??

[Elena]

Hey @tori_higgins!

Thanks for posting about this on our Community!

We'll be happy to explain a bit more about this. Spotify gives the podcast hosts the option to choose if they would like to have a dynamic ad slot in their podcast or not.

You can find more info on this here. Advertising is very much tied to the traditional podcast listening experience that has worked well for both creators and listeners in the past. So, even as a Premium member, you may hear advertising or sponsorship messages within some podcast episodes.

You can keep an eye on the idea about changing that. Keep in mind that even ideas with the status Case Closed are monitored by Spotify and you can show your support by voting.

Hope this explains the situation. We'll be here if you have any other questions. 

[tori_higgins]

Hi Elena,

Thank you for the unhelpful, regurgitated response about Spotify's advertisement "policy." From my understanding, Spotify ORIGINAL podcasts are produced and content created by Spotify --the host is Spotify, not a third party. So how is it not double dipping or a conflict of interest for the host to advertise on its own platform? 

Why are the ads visible on the podcast homepage even when an episode isn't being played? It's just a nice reminder of companies I will not support. 

Where is the non SAI subscriber option? The truly ad-free experience that people want?  

[Dariojp]

Why does Spotify exclusive podcasts have ads? That's just dumb. I understand other podcasts having ads but the one made by Spotify should have ads 

[Dariojp]

Shouldn't have ads.