Ads playing on Podcasts

[HannahL1999]

I am a premium user and have had a premium account for 7 years. Up until recently there were no ads with podcasts and now there are ad interruptions during and after each episode. Why have ads been added when I am a premium user and am paying specifically to not have ads

Premium/Canada

Device: Galaxy s20FE

[Maxim]

Hey folks,

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 🙂

[Sidineibarros]

I have a duo account with my wife and she receives ads when she listens to podcasts

[Nawrik]

Dear Spotify Team,

I am writing to express my deep disappointment and frustration with my recent experience using Spotify Premium. As a premium subscriber, I was led to believe that my experience would be entirely ad-free. The advertisements promised an "ad-free experience," without specifying any exceptions for certain songs, genres, or types of content.

However, while traveling in Germany and residing in Switzerland, I encountered advertisements at the beginning of Bill Burr's podcast. This goes against the ad-free experience I was assured of when I subscribed to the premium service. This feels like a bait-and-switch tactic, where I was promised one thing but delivered another.

Spotify's explanation that ads are included to provide value to podcasters feels disingenuous. If the goal is to support podcasters, there are other ways to do so without compromising the user experience that premium subscribers were promised.

I urge Spotify to reconsider this approach and ensure that the premium service remains truly ad-free, as advertised. It's disheartening to feel that the company I trusted to deliver an uninterrupted listening experience is instead prioritizing ad revenue over user satisfaction.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to a resolution that honors the promise of an ad-free experience for all premium subscribers.

Sincerely,

Dave

[untilthen]

Hi Dave, 
I am similarly a VERY dissatisfied user. I have been informed by the Spotify team that the premium "ad-free" experience only covers the music side of things. Not so much the podcasts arena due to the content creators' monetization efforts. This clause has been included in their end user agreement as well (I went looking after 6 years). 
Unfortunately, I have no solutions for you. But i do have recommendations. I have been told YouTube Premium covers both music AND podcasts. You might want to look into it. 
Hope this helps! 🙂

[garrinevan]

Why are premium users being subjected to ads? Do I need to cancel my spotify subscription???

[guitardude1236]

Apple Podcasts do not insert ads like Spotify does. Trying to figure out how to get my stream functioning the same way it does on Spotify so I can just use Apple for my podcasts now. Unfortunate they have take this option away from users, I really liked the Spotify podcast UI. 

[Notsopremium]

Another incredibly disappointed 'Premium' subscriber for many years. Whilst some others hate it, I don't mind the podcasters reading their ads I can skip through those that's fine but the unskippable ones I have been getting before podcasts is getting very annoying. I pay for an ad free service and I am not getting that. The more ads I get the more likely I am to A leave but also B never purchase from the companies I constantly get bombarded with ads by. 

[primalux]

All of a sudden I'm getting ads between EVERY SINGLE PODCAST. Multiple ads. All from Spotify. And this is on top of raising prices and throwing up random popups for **bleep** I don't care about that freeze the app, and auto-playing podcasts I don't follow that I then cannot remove from my listening history so I keep getting them recommended in my feed. I'm done using this as a podcast app, since they seem to actively want to make the experience worse for the people who actually pay them.

[nickayre]

Absolutely outrageous. Unbelievable. Charging users money and still to receive ads? Good luck with that. Back to pocket casts it is, which as a podcast app is far superior to Spotify as a pocket cast app.

You can't have your cake and eat it. Subscription cancelled. 

[paulywogg99]

Yeah, the ads Spotify dynamically inserts are indiscernible from being a free listener. They're poorly timed, they're really loud, and incredibly annoying.

They often hit in the middle of a sentence or a word, and they really detract from the experience. I'm looking for an alternate podcast provider, as this is just not on. I'll probably cancel my family Spotify account when I find a better one.

[Hajowang]

Just terrible.

I started to get ads this week. Ive been using it for podcast for some years now as an paid user. Never had it before. 

Now it comes so **bleep**ing often....I cant even listen podcast in peace....

[Jonas_Ham]

This is such a scam! Spotify made roughly half a billion in profits this year and they decide to play ads to their premium users instead of paying artists and podcasters properly? Stop being so greedy and work on a proper monetization model for your users and creators...

[LouisVuittonDon]

I’ve recently started getting ads from Spotify (ie not woven into the content by the podcast provider) before a podcast starts.

They are 15 seconds long and the option is there to skip. I’m just wondering, as a premium member why are ads being played in the first place? I thought you pay a premium membership to not have ads. 

[The_Little_Swiss]

Je reçois de la pub pendant que j'écoute des potcast. Et ça me fait péter les ploms!

[#16]

I hope this is my problem but I get 1 minute add while listening podcasts. That's kinda frustrating. I'm paying the family plan.

[me123654]

This is confusing. I want to express my deep disappointment and frustration with my recent experience using Spotify Premium. Why should I pay for Premium when I get the same benefits as the free version? Spotify's explanation that ads are included to provide value to podcasters feels disingenuous. This is ridiculous! I need to find a better platform.

[paulywogg99]

I couldn't agree more. There's a HUGE difference between a podcast host reading an ad, and the garbage that spotify shoehorn in at random moments at the HIGHEST VOLUME POSSIBLE. It's unwanted, and completely against the "no ads" perk of paying for Spotify premium.

[Junior1234321]

After years of premium, it’s time to vote with my wallet and subscribe something else

[gallopingpenguin]

I ran into this problem about a month ago (mid Oct 2024).  I find it especially annoying when listening to podcasts from the ABC. The ABC is the national broadcaster in Australia (where I am). They are not allowed to receive money from advertising so these ads on Spotify are NOT supporting the ABC who produce the podcast.
Equally annoying is the same podcast on my husband's account just had some promos for other ABC content, which is normal. My account had ads for banks and TV shows! We are on a family account so it just bugs me more.  I can handle 'a word from our sponsors' type stuff in a podcast where a podcaster has developed a relationship with a brand or company but having random ads that are clearly not related to the podcaster is so annoying.