Premium account - podcasts with ads.

[MissKris10]

As a premium Spotify user for more than 8 years; I continue to wonder why Spotify has continued to advertise Spotify Premium as an ad-free subscription option, when it’s far from that in actuality—specifically pertaining to popular podcasts. I wanted to believe that Spotify wasn’t purposely burying this detail, but I no longer have that perspective.
If you are a paying for Spotify Premium, and are paying for the service with the expectation that podcast episodes will be ad-free; you’ll be sadly fooled. While Spotify won’t (or at least shouldn’t) interrupt your podcast listening experience to advertise their particular sponsors; individual podcasts are still filled with advertisements and lengthy sales-pitches (of which can be of any topic—Spotify users have no ability to filter out the ad topics for any reason, including those “built-in” ads containing explicit content). 
Premium Spotify users are seemingly footing the bill twice: we pay the monthly elevated “ad-free” Spotify fee, and also are paying the salary of podcasters who continue to get paid to advertise for their sponsors.  

Please provide a well-supported argument, as to why a Premium Spotify account is a desired upgrade from a free Spotify account—pertaining to someone who listens to only podcasts. I’d love to change my mind re: canceling my premium account; but so far, I’m not finding a logical nor factual reason to support this. 

Thanks!

[Billy-J]

hey @MissKris10, thanks for reaching out to the Community!

The ads you see in the podcasts are integrated. This means that they are put there by the content creator themselves. Spotify can't alter the content of the artists and supply it to users in the same form, as received.

As a Premium subscriber, you won’t receive any ads from Spotify, but from third parties, endorsed by the content creators. If you have an issue with these ads, then I’d recommend reaching out directly to the podcast creators. There is also some more information on ads in podcasts in this Spotify Answer.

Spotify gives the podcast hosts the option to choose if they would like to have a dynamic ad slot in their podcast. You can find more info on this here.

I understand that many of the creators that you're listening to seem to be using that option but that is not something Spotify can control - it's up to the individual podcast owners if they choose to have that type of ad in their content. You can always create a new Idea about this here, and you can learn more about how ideas reach the right teams this Spotify Answer.

I hope this clears things up.

[DonnieDarkOh]

Hey MissKris01,

Please help us vote here to get this addressed. I agree and totally think it's ridiculous. I've been a user for nearly 10 years. I pay for ad-free content, therefore my content should be ad-free. Just wait until musicians start embedding ads into their tracks.

Spotify keeps marking this idea inactive every year so each year we have to vote again. Pass on to your Spotify friends. 

2020 Link to vote

[MissKris10]

👍👍 on it!!!

[MissKris10]

The worst part about this response is as follows: “I understand that many of the creators that you're listening to seem to be using that option but that is not something Spotify can control - it's up to the individual podcast owners if they choose to have that type of ad in their content.”
It’s not something Spotify can control!?! Oh wow. If you believe this to be true, then there are MUCH bigger problems to address. 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️