Spotify is adding one minute audio ads to playlists; and even though have only been for Spotify’s own podcasts, so far, some users who pay monthly for ad free listening are not happy. “Spotify, I will not pay to listen to ads. I dumped cable and I will dump you too,” wrote one user.
“I recently opened up the “This is: Hans Zimmer” Official Spotify playlist to help me concentrate during the exam period, and noticed that the first “song” was actually an advert for an upcoming Spotify podcast and had absolutely nothing to do with Hans Zimmer,” wrote Reddit user FalafelHalloumi, along with a screenshot of a one minute audio ad for Spotify’s Showstopper podcast inserted as the first track in the playlist.
“customers (especially those paying) expect to have a top quality listening experience”
“I feel Spotify could have gone for a less intrusive method to promote their new podcast that didn’t involve putting it within a playlist where customers (especially those paying) expect to have a top quality listening experience,” he added.
“When cable started having ads, it was just a short one at the beginning of the show. Same with Hulu. If you’re paying for Spotify, no ad is acceptable, regardless of the content of the ad,” wrote another Spotify user.
Some others in the forum said they are heavy Spotify premium users and have never encountered an ad, or felt that an ad for Spotify’s own services was acceptable.