BAFFLED Spotify users have complained that they’re hearing ads – despite forking out for paid memberships.
Normally paying for a Spotify Premium plan means you don’t hear advertisements interrupting your tunes.
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It’s one of the main benefits £11.99 / $11.99 monthly membership.
But dozens of users have flocked to Spotify’s official forums to complain that they’re being forced to list to ads.
Spotify has designated the problem as “under investigation“, which means that it hasn’t been fixed yet.
One Spotify subscriber moan: “Just started happening to me this morning on web browser.”
Another said: “I also have advertising with premium. Also can’t choose what I want to hear.”
An irate fan added: “Is this getting fixed or what? We pay to not hear ads, it can’t be that hard. If I hear the ad for national debt relief one more time, I’m going to lose my mind.”
And one wrote: “Me too. I’ve been listening all morning and then all of a sudden getting loads of ads.
“It’s acting as if I don’t have Premium.”
The issue seems to be affecting users on different devices, including in the mobile app, on speakers, and on web browsers too.
Spotify admitted: “We’ve received reports that active Premium users are hearing ads interrupting their listening experience.”
Thankfully the music giant did serve up some potential fixes for the issue.
“If you’ve experienced an issue, please try resyncing your account info,” Spotify advised.
“To do this, you’ll need to log out of the app and back in again 2-3 times in a row, as this will force a resync.
“We also recommend force closing the app on mobile and then restarting it, if the above doesn’t do the trick.
SPOTIFY PREMIUM – WHAT DOES IT GET YOU?
Here’s what Spotify Premium plans include…
Ad-free music listening
Download to listen offline
Play songs in any order
High audio quality
Listen with friends in real time
Organise listening queue
Picture Credit: Spotify
“For those of you experiencing issues with external devices (such as speakers), please make sure to restart the device as well.”
But it’s entirely possible that these fixes won’t work for you, given that Spotify is still investigating the issue.
It’s not just ads either: some Spotify users are saying that they can’t pick the songs that they want to play.
That’s another perk of Premium memberships, which has seemingly disappeared for some users.
Pretty shoddy for the price I am paying.
Spotify Premium subscriber
One wrote: “I have the same issue on my iPhone and Echo speaker. I also cannot play albums in full or in order now, just whatever the app wants me to hear.
“Pretty shoddy for the price I am paying.”
And one added: “Just started getting this issue this morning. Subscription is active but can only play on shuffle and getting ads I shouldn’t be.
“Happens on any device despite it showing correct subscription level.”
SPOTIFY PRICES – HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
Here are the Spotify plans…
Individual – £11.99 / $11.99 monthly fee
- 1 Premium account
- Cancel anytime
- 15 hours/month of listening time from our audiobooks subscriber catalogue
Student – £5.99 / $5.99 monthly fee
- 1 verified Premium account
- Discount for eligible students
- Cancel anytime
Duo – £16.99 / $16.99 monthly fee
- 2 Premium accounts
- Cancel anytime
- 15 hours/month of listening time from our audiobooks subscriber catalogue (plan manager only)
Family – £19.99 / $19.99 monthly fee
- Up to 6 Premium or Kids accounts
- Control content marked as explicit
- Access to Spotify Kids
- Cancel anytime
- 15 hours/month of listening time from our audiobooks subscriber catalogue (plan manager only)
All prices were accurate at the time of writing, but may have since changed.
Picture Credit: Spotify
The Sun has asked Spotify for comment and will update this story with any response.
