[Update: Nov. 22] Spotify issue with ads in podcasts comes to light, users want option to remove or stop showing recommended podcasts

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on October 21, 2021) follows:

Spotify, the service that became popular for music streaming, for some time can also be used to listen to podcasts. However, Spotify premium users are not happy because they are receiving podcasts ads, even paying subscription.

Something that is usually normal in services that offer content for free is the appearance of advertising at certain times, both in the middle and before each content.

This type of ads serve as a method of generating profits from those users who use the service in a free subscription. Therefore, it is something quite understandable.

What is not usually normal is that even users who pay the monthly subscription of the service in question are also affected by the ads. This is what is currently happening with Spotify podcasts and their premium subscription.

The Reddit forums have been filled with complaints from many users claiming that, even after paying their monthly subscription to the service, they continue to receive annoying ads that affects their experience.

According to user reports (1, 2, 3), this type of ads can arrive in various ways, some of them being very invasive.

For example, one of the users claims that he received two ads in the middle of playing a podcast, being a premium user of the Spotify service. This may be unthinkable in other similar services where a monthly fee is paid.

Another user complains that he uses Spotify exclusively to listen to music, and uses another service for podcasts. However, he has to “scroll through a dozen lines” to get to his Spotify playlist, which is quite problematic.

Due to how annoying the situation has become, many Spotify users are claiming the option to remove podcasts from the app (1, 2, 3, 4)

Users think that having music and podcasts unified in the application is something that is generating many problems and annoyances, even those who use the service paying a monthly subscription.

This is something that can be noticed in situations like those described above. There are users who have their playlist ready, but first they have to scroll down to get to it, because first there are dozens of recommended podcasts.

Some users also claim that this problem is ruining the application for them. They point out that they loved discovering new music through Spotify, but now what appears the most on the interface is podcast.

At the moment it is not known if this situation will change in the near future. We will have to wait for an official statement from Spotify to know whether or not the problem with podcasts ads in premium subscriptions will be solved.

11:20 am (IST): Spotify allegedly added an option to filter out podcasts from home screen. This way users can get rid of those podcasts that they don’t want to listen.

07:42 pm (IST): It looks like Spotify is finally considering adding a toggle to disable or hide podcasts from the home page. Apparently, the feature request is currently under internal review.

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