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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
Rpasinatto

I'm having the same problem. We pay the premium subscription to avoid ads and even so, we are forced to hear ads that break the immersion during the podcasts. This is not something that you can say "We offer to the creators the possibility to add advertising" if you have a premium subscription that is paid to avoid the ads. Something must change! You can create a "middle-term" subscription, cheaper, for those who don't care about the ads for a discount in the subscription.

KatesHere

The Premium no ads part refers to music, not podcast. It's a popular issue, you can search for this and a lot of threads will come up in the Community.

11120635681

im paying since probably 10 years for spotify premium. since like half a year or a year i get spliced ads in podcasts. if there is no way to disable this, i will change providers at first convenience.

Ma116

Hej, jag får en podd fylld med reklam (DN Spotlight) i min Daily Commute. Jag gillar funktionen i den automatgenererade spellistan i övrigt, men saknar möjlighet att blockera reklamfyllt content. Jag betalar en prenumeration av Spotify för att slippa reklam, om jag måste lyssna på reklam så kan jag istället använda mig av FM-radio - gratis. Hur blockerar jag innehållet så att jag inte måste avsluta min prenumeration av spotify?

vbigfish

My specific problem is ads in audiobooks that I use to help get to sleep. Ads break the whole purpose. I, like most people here, am capable of diferentiating between an embedded ad in a podecast (read by the persdon reading the book, and having some relevance to the content but when I'm listening to an english language book, and I get a highly localised ad in Portuguese (I live in Brazil), I know it isn't embedded. Spotify is choosing to put ads in their ad free service while charging for their ad free service!
 It really wouldn't be difficult to specify the type of add a podcast can carry, to the podcaster in the contract they have with Spotify. But Spotify prefer to cry helplessness in the face of money grubbing podcasters! Really!!!

mariajosemino

Hola, estoy intentando poner una reclamación pues tengo Spotify premium y me ponen anuncios cuando oigo podcast. Sabéis cómo puedo hacerlo? Gracias 

-d2
I already pay you for premium and here I am getting eBay ads? What the hell is going on?
Mitre226644
  1. Using a device that connects to the internet, navigate to Google. 
  2. Describe your issue to Google, and it will in turn provide you with information on the matter. Its plentiful, and has a long history online as this matter has been at hand for three dozen years.
tsrk30

Premium Spotify subscription doesn’t remove adds from Podcast. As a podcaster, my adds are placed there by my podcast hosting site and are meant to be played on every platform. If Spotify removed them that would take away my opportunity to make any money. Spotify doesn’t pay podcasters per stream like musical artists. If a podcast is Spotify original, then they could remove adds for premium subscribers since they are producing it and paying the podcaster. 

This is really obnoxious. It's bad enough that podcasts include ads within the podcast itself - ad copy that the pidcast hosts read. But now podcasts are being interrupted with additional ads. This is a recent change - it just started happening today Dear Spotify, if you keep this up, I will cancel.