Spotify It has become the largest platform for listening to streaming music over the Internet. The company offers users two modalities: the first one, totally free, but with ads and some limitations on the mobile, and another, paid, which allows you to remove the ads when listening to music, changing songs on the mobile and downloading music to listen to it offline, among other functions. The main incentive to pay for Spotify Premium is to remove advertising. But, what they do not tell us is that it is not completely eliminated.
It is true that, as soon as we pay, we get the subscriber range and the advertising disappears which, in the free version, plays between songs. Nor will we see any banner as it does appear in the free versions of the platform. Initially, the experience of using the platform is much clearer and cleaner, and we can use it without any disturbance or distraction.
But, despite paying 10 euros a month, not everything is perfect.
Where we find advertising in Spotify Premium
In theory, Spotify should adapt to your tastes and only recommend content related to them. Although the algorithm sometimes misses some neural network, in general the automatically generated lists (such as Release Radar or Discover Weekly) tend to be quite successful. And the same thing happens with other lists generated by algorithms, such as MIX.
However, we only have to browse our home to find ourselves company recommendations which are clearly biased and placed there intentionally.
None of the songs on the “can’t miss” lists are related to the musical tastes that, for years, I have been showing Spotify. And it is clear that it is the company that wants to take me down that path. At least, if we search a little, they say it very clearly.
If it’s just these lists, even if they are placed intentionally, nothing would happen either. But if you listen to podcasts within this platform, the worst is yet to come.
Podcasts: worst of all
Initially, if you pay for Spotify Premium you understand that the conditions apply to both music and podcasts. And it is that, when paying, all traces of advertising should be eliminated, as other similar platforms do, such as iVoox. But it’s not like that.
Since 2020, Spotify allows content creators (yes, only Spotify Originals) to introduce ads in their programs, as explained in this note. So far everything is correct. The problem is that this advertising applies to all users, whether they are Free or Premium. Therefore, it is frustrating to find that, when listening to a program, an ad suddenly skips, despite having paid the 10 euros per month fee.
Interestingly, this service comes through its own advertising platform, «Spotify Podcast Ads«. So even though it’s optional, and content creators decide whether or not to activate it, who says no to quick and easy income? It’s a Win-Win, both for Spotify and for the creators.
That, without taking into account the new playlists «Radar Podcasters Spain» who arrived in Spain a few weeks ago. Programs exclusive to the platform, of questionable quality, and with their own ads that, according to their experts, could interest us. And yes, we might be interested: to add them to the ignore list and start looking for other podcast platforms, such as Apple Podcasts either Google Podcast.
