Can't listen to NPR podcasts

[jpdelatorre]

Plan

Premium

Country

Bolivia

Device

Desktop, Web, Huawei Mate 10

Operating System

MacOS, Linux, Android

My Question or Issue

I'm subscribed to a number of NPR podcasts but I have not been able to even list any of their episodes from the time I subscribed. It's been months since I tried first and I was hoping the issue would be solved by now, but it's still not possible.

In total they are 6 podcasts that I'm subscribed to and that I can't listen to a single episode. All of them appear like the one in the attachment.

Is this a geographical problem? I've tried listening from different countries and the problem is the same.

[Nico]

Hey @jpdelatorre! Welcome to the Spotify Community. ^^

That doesn't look cool.

They are not available for me as well. I guess they got removed by the NPR. You can ask them to re-upload their podcasts. Is this only happening to Podcasts by NPR?

Let me know how it goes! ^^

Peace

[jpdelatorre]

Actually, I could find all of their episodes by closing my session and using a US based VPN to access the web page. That means it is a geographical problem and, sadly, my account is useless when I want to listen to NPR podcasts.

[Nico]

@jpdelatorre 

You're right.

They made them available for US users only. It makes sense since they're the National Public Radio from the USA. 

Peace

[jpdelatorre]

I find it really strange because their podcasts are available globally thru Google Podcasts, iTunes, NPR One and just any application that supports RSS subscriptions.

I'll get in contact with them to see if this is a mistake.

Thanks, Nico!

[simonstrumse]

Any news on this? Spotifys podcast functionality is pretty useless for me in Norway if I can't listen to NPR podcasts...

[jpdelatorre]

I have contacted NPR's helpdesk and, after a short exchange, all I got was a non-answer in the vein of "we want people from all over the world to listen to us and will enable access on Spotify in the near future". Just that, even though I reminded them that NPR's shows are already available through many different platforms (most of which are not monetized).

I have the feeling that they disabled access either because they want to increase the popularity of their app, NPR One, or because they would get into trouble making money from abroad on Spotify (given they are state-owned and all that).

[luanttran]

Has anyone had any update on this? I reached out to NPR a few months ago and they did tell that their podcasts on Spotify are geo-restricted to USA but that this it is Spotify that's causing the problem. NPR told me that they want to distribute their podcasts widely and internationally through Spotify but it is Spotify that is preventing this. 

[SwedenGuy1 · Accepted solution]

They currently claim that it is a problem but do not specify why they can work with Apple but not Spotify. 

Maybe we should write to Planet Money for them to do an episode on this?

—-

Thank you for contacting NPR.

Unfortunately, we’re unable to offer our podcasts internationally via Spotify at this time. Our international audience is important to us and we will continue to explore options.

In the meantime, you can find NPR podcasts in any other podcasting app, on npr.org, in the NPR app, or in the NPR One app.