What you need to know
- Spotify Premium users are hearing ads, which is likely the result of a bug.
- The company is looking into the issue, first reported last Friday, but did not confirm the ads are accidental.
- Ad-free music streaming is a key perk of Spotify Premium, which starts at $12 per month, and users are understandably frustrated.
Spotify is one of the few music streaming services that offer a free tier for listening, but many pay for Spotify Premium to listen to songs in any order and get an ad-free experience. It’s not cheap — the Premium Individual plan starts at $11.99 per month — and one of the key selling points is getting rid of commercial breaks. That’s why Spotify Premium users are frustrated, because some are reporting hearing ads despite subscribing to the service.
There are multiple reports of this issue on Spotify’s community forums, dating back to last Friday, Feb. 7 (via Android Authority). Customers are also reporting issues contacting support and getting help, with one user saying that it has been “impossible to talk to anyone at Spotify.” Nearly one week later, the company is looking into the problem.
“Our tech teams are currently investigating reports of Premium users hearing ads,” a support representative wrote. “We’ll keep you posted here if we have any news to share, so make sure to Subscribe to the thread to stay tuned.”
Spotify asks users affected by the issue to add to the thread with their device information, app version or web player, the type of ad they heard, and any troubleshooting steps they’ve already taken. In the thread, some users have reported trying numerous troubleshooting steps, and yet the problem still persists.
Notably, the support representative did not explicitly confirm that Spotify Premium users hearing ads was a result of a bug. It does seem like this is the case, and we’ll likely learn more soon.
Android Central reached out to Spotify to confirm that ads played for Spotify Premium subscribers were not intentional, and asked for an update on the support investigation. We did not hear back in time for publication, but will update this article when we do.
For now, Spotify Premium users should know that they’re not alone if they are hearing ads or getting commercial breaks while listening to music.