Modified Content and Unskippable Ads

[Cyphadrus]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

All

My Question or Issue

Per section 8 "Rights you grant us" of the Spotify Terms and Conditions of Use:

"Some Content licensed by, provided to, created by or otherwise made available by Spotify (e.g. podcasts) may contain advertising as part of the Content. The Spotify Service makes such Content available to you unmodified."

The following is a screenshot of a modification Spotify made to Content (a podcast in this case) that makes advertising no longer "as part of the Content" and no longer "unmodified" as well as unskippable for Premium Subscribers.

Please revert or alter this functionality as it is currently non-compliant with Section 8 of the Spotify Terms and Conditions of Use.

[Alex]

Hey there @Cyphadrus,

Thanks for reaching out about this.

While Spotify doesn't play ads when Premium subscribers are listening to content, some podcast creators may include third-party advertising, host-read endorsements or sponsorship messages in their episodes if they choose to do so. These specific ads depend entirely on the podcast creators themselves.

You can have a look at this Spotify Answer for more info on this topic.

Hope this helps. If you have more questions, don't hesitate to reach out again.

Have a great day!

[Cyphadrus]

Yes, I understood before writing this that ads are present in Podcast content on Spotify, even for Premium Subscribers. The issue that I have detailed above is that Spotify has modified some or all of these advertisements so they are no longer built-in (or a part of) the podcast itself, but are now separate and un-skippable entities, distinct from the podcast track.

If podcast advertisements were played "as-is" within the podcast track, like they have been historically, there would not be an issue; but recent changes by Spotify have made this no longer the case.

[Mario]

Hey @Cyphadrus,

Thanks for your feedback and sorry about the late reply.

If you feel like suggesting it should be implemented, you can create an Idea and see what happens. To do so:

1. Go to the Spotify Community

2. Click on Menu

3. Click on Ideas > Idea submissions

4. Scroll all the way to the bottom and click on Let’s go

The higher the number of votes an Idea gets, the more likely it is for the Idea to be implemented. If you wish to learn more about how your feedback will reach Spotify, feel free to take a look at this article.

Hope you'll find this info useful. Have a nice day!

[Cyphadrus]

I'm pointing out an issue where Spotify is violating it's own terms of service. Spotify needs to rectify this.

This isn't an idea and your generic reply suggests you didn't bother to actually read or verify what I submitted...