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[All Platforms] No Ads in Podcasts for Spotify Premium users

I pay for my subscription. Every month for years now. The main reason I am a paid-for subscriber with Spotify is so I don't have to hear ads. As I have shifted my podcast listening from other providers to Spotify to bypass ads, both from the platform as well as integrated into the content.

 

I expect not to hear ads on Spotify. I understand there are ads woven into the actual content of the podcast itself, but for as big of a company and the amount of leverage Spotify has, I expect to not hear ads so long as I am paying for the service.

 

I reached out to Spotify and got this lazy, generic answer from Joy in Spotify Customer Support: “if you're hearing ads on podcasts using this Premium account. It's possible that the podcaster integrated that ads to their podcast content”. Thanks for breaking your back on that response.

 

I KNOW what the ads I’m hearing are. And I understand they can’t ask podcasters to export two versions, one with integrated ads and one without. What I expect from Spotify is to either implement metadata that tags the beginning and ending of ad segments and bypass them for us, Premium subscribers, or require podcasters to give metadata timecodes that Spotify can identify to bypass them AUTOMATICALLY.

 

Just to be clear, even if these identifiers are put into the content, I don’t want to have to pull my phone out to hit any sort of “skip ads” button. This is literally the ONLY reason users have Premium. So get rid of the ads. It’s actually very simple. And let’s not get started on how archaic it is to continually hit the “15sec forward” button to bypass the ads, first over shooting, then undershooting the duration of the integrated ad, only to have to make peace with hearing the last ten seconds of the ad. At that point it’s not servicing either party in the transaction.

 

It’s 2020. You are a huge company with a lot of leverage and a huge developer budget. I honestly can’t believe I’m even having to write this suggestion.

 

tl:dr - Spotify, I am a Premium member. You made a promise to me that if I became a Premium member, I wouldn’t hear ads. I’m hearing ads on podcasts. Integrated or not, I don’t care. You have the technology and power to fix it. So fix it. And make it automatic. It’s 2020.

Updated on 2023-04-15

Hey folks,

The Ideas section provides users with the opportunity to share their opinion on what features and app improvements can be developed, to make Spotify better. This idea however, in it's core fundamentals, requires to change how the Premium subscription works and what opportunities Spotify offers to Podcast creators.

 

As part of the Premium subscription, all music can be enjoyed ad-free. And while Spotify doesn’t play ads that interrupt the music listening experience of Premium subscribers, some podcasts may include advertising, host-read endorsements, or sponsorship independently of the streaming platforms featuring such podcasts.

 

Providing a way to circumvent those is not something that our Idea submission process can accomplish.


This doesn't mean that your feedback isn't heard and that this request couldn't be fulfilled by some other means in the future. On the contrary, this is being monitored and we invite everyone to share their opinion in a constructive manner. We will then ensure to pass it on to the relevant teams.

 

Please do note, that we do understand the overall sentiment and if the thread stops being useful as a source to track constructive feedback, we will need to close it for further replies.

 

All the best!

Comments
Jhesseh

Stop this, I pay for no adds, music or podcast it doesn’t matter.

Spotify should pay the podcast instead

simon2001

i just unsubbed from premium and subbed elsewhere. there are excellent alternatives and apart from joe rogan (who can go f*** himself with his god complex attititude and obscene greed) most podcasts are available on many different platforms, ad free. iive just been listening ad free to lex fridmans podcast with elon musk and frankly he does a much better job than rogan. as for music, nothing at all special about spotify, just unsub from premium and vote with your feet. 

RTBRKR

link was of course removed....

Anyk17

Hey Zoecalabrese 😊

If you don't want to see the push notifications, you can disable them in your Settings:

  1. Open Spotify, click Your Library, then the gear icon on the top right corner of the screen.
  2. Scroll down in Settings until you see Notifications and click it.
  3. Toggle on or off to pick how and which notifications according to your preference.

Find more at https://support.spotify.com/us/article/notification-settings/.

 

Hope this helps!

I have a premium subscription & receive DAI when driving listening to podcasts that are unskippable. if i listen to the same podcasts via desktop i get no ads and historically if I did get served an ad it was skippable. These are not embedded ads to the show like many other podcasts, they are DAI ads that have been pre-recorded by the hosts
Maxim

Hey there,

 

Thanks for coming to the Community.

 

Spotify advertises that a Premium user can listen to music without ad interruptions, which is one of the key benefits of a Premium subscription. However, podcasts for both free and Premium users may include ads, and they can be either host-read endorsements, sponsorships or audio adverts within the podcast track itself.

 

A special feature is available that can dynamically insert ads within a podcast stream. This can be enabled or disabled by the podcast publishers. The desire here is to provide some added value for those who want to host their podcasts on Spotify.

 

The teams at Spotify understand that there might be some confusion on the fact that Premium comes with ad free music listening, but doesn't cover podcasts.

 

Hopefully this explanation provides you with a better understanding of the Premium subscription and the ads that you listened to. Apologies if this was not made sufficiently clear before.

 

Spotify cares about their users' opinion and they're doing their best to expand on the information sources available to be more transparent 🙂

Olfairn

This is not because of Spotify. 

 

Critical Role decided to put these ads. Even the player on their website contains it, and it links to 'Simplecast', a podcast monetization system.

wikisqueaks

This response is also inadequate because even on Spotify Exclusive podcasts there are targeted ads. That's just ridiculous. There is literally no way to listen to this podcast without ads now, no matter what or who you pay.

simon2001

well, ive unsubbed from spotify. i dont care if spotify insert the ads themselves, turn a blind eye to their c***ty podcasters or its just some greedy c****y podcasters whose greed is insatiable, they can all go f*** themselves. there are 1000s of great podcasts, we dont need the sh*t amongst them, vote with your feet, its the only way they learn and its the only way to have any chance of enjoying podcasts without intolerable interruptions.

mohsenari

Idk if anyone from Spotify reads this anymore. But if anyone is reading, you have no idea how frustrating it is to listen to ads as a paid premium user. It is even more frustrating reading the response from Spotify. I'm seriously considering canceling my subscription after almost 10 years of paying for Spotify and 13 years of using Spotify. Absolutely disappointing.