[Podcasts] Why am I paying for premium when I have really limited podcast selection?

[ichimdav]

Plan

Premium

Country

Romania 

Device

Desktop, Android Phone

Operating System

Windows 10, Android 7.1.1

My Question or Issue

https://newsroom.spotify.com/2018-05-10/spotify-and-npr-team-up-to-feed-your-podcast-addiction/

Although I can subscribe to the podcasts given within this article on the play page

there are no podcasts episodes to play as such my country does not have access to.

Please don't tell me that this is due to a licensing issue since I can easily play them within Sticher or Google Podcasts in Romania as such if those 2 podcast apps can play them Spotify should allow me as well a premium subscriber to play them as well

https://newsroom.spotify.com/2018-05-15/spotify-studios-launches-season-3-of-critically-acclaimed-di...

This is an original podcast, why can't I listen to it? Netflix makes original content seen in all of the countries where they offer a subscription ... since Spotify made an original content why can't I listen to it?

Get your game together Spotify and stop with these silly restrictions

[Aimee_T]

Hi @ichimdav!Welcome to our Spotify Community.

We understand where you're coming. However, due to licensing reasons, all the podcast aren't available everywhere. No worries, we'll pass your comments to the right team.

Take care 🙂

[ichimdav]

Well Google doesn't have these licensing issues and neither does Stitcher.

You operate in many more countries now rather than just the usual USA and UK,

consider globally licensing to the countries you operate into.

I am in Romania, I can pay for premium but I can't see the newsroom articles or click on help answers since you url rewrite the links to enter /ro which gives me 404 ... 

I feel like I been given access to a backdoor to your house with the idea of not to touch anything or I will be kicked out .. seriously not cool my spotify experience with no way to reach customer service and no way to basically see anything that you give through the links found on your site.

Also fix your search, I used to be subscribed to Freakanomics, they moved to stitcher and although I have a new address to listen to them on Spotify searching for "Freakanomics" will not give me the new link within the "Podcasts" section as if your

platform doesn't even know anymore about Freakanomics which is quite a popular podcast.

[Guido]

Hey @ichimdav.

Thanks for your feedback.

We're always looking to improve Spotify and believe us, there is nothing more in the world that we want than to have all the music (or podcasts) available on Spotify. And hopefully some day we will!

Feel free to check out our Ideas Exchange page where you can leave feedback and talk about ideas you have to improve Spotify.

Thanks again!

[ichimdav]

To me this blocking of npr podcasts are a soft block and not something related to licencing.

I just downloaded the most popular 10 podcast apps on Google Play (min 1mil downloads) and all of them had npr hidden brain visible, as well as apple music, google podcasts and every other conceivable podcast app.

So yeah until I get an official reply on what countries npr podcasts are available for and for how long or when are they going to be available in my country I will not accept any answer as the correct answer.

Besides what I wrote about the podcast I had other questions as well but I guess I can only get one reply per issue on a given post instead of having all of the issues that I have entered as the thread body text 😞

[Guido]

Hey @ichimdav.

Thanks for getting back.

If you'd like to know on which services certain podcasts are available, it's best to contact the people that make the podcasts as they decide where their podcasts are available.

Feel free to start a topic regarding other issues you might have. And don't forget that the best place to leave your ideas on how to improve Spotify is the Ideas Exchange. It's people like you that make Spotify better 🙂

Let us know if you have further questions. Have a nice day!