This is coming from a 23-year-old, I know marketing and I know capitalism. Iโm literally in Spotifyโs target audience. This is my statement and I wish you wouldnโt ignore it or anyone elseโs opinion on this matter because podcasts DO provide insight and knowledge and humor, but youโre directly omitting any sense of agency on this app, mobile or desktop version.
Spotify: โyou have to listen to the podcast a little in order to give it a bad ratingโ โyou have to follow the podcast first in order to unfollow itโ โyou have to unwillingly give homepage space to multiple podcast episodes in a horizontal scrolling tab which are of no relevance to you and could even be strongly disliked by youโ โyou have to see 6 covers of Emma Chamberlain facing a handheld mirror with the youth-oriented catchphrase slogan โanything goesโ when you know Chamberlain is a phony influencer who picks and chooses how to portray herself to youth.โ
So Spotifyโs choice to push podcasts onto users includes completely removing the option to opt out? Is it so hard to believe that human beings have preferences? No, Spotify is monetizing the podcasts so of course they wouldnโt incorporate ANY user-friendly tactics, at all. Congratulations Spotify, youโre banking on the success of Spotify Wrapped (a visual concept stolen from a female African-American intern in highschool in the 2010s) and downgrading the rest of the app.
I even tried finding a way to block a certain podcast on a laptop with no success because SPOTIFY REMOVED the buttons (which used to be there) allowing for any sort of AGENCY in our listening experience. I actually like podcasts and grew interest in them during 2019 and 2020, but the sponsored and non-sponsored recommendations have slowly stopped me from listening to any podcast altogetherโฆ. Because it is so. frustrating.
What if a podcast content creator was a known offender or an individualโs hypothetical nightmare?? Spotify has zero accountability. And setting the consideration status of this issue to Not Right Now just deepens the figurative pain of helpless conforming. Unless your goal was to slowly say goodbye to people who are done with this **bleep**.