Is there a Spotify alternative that has no ads?

I pay for Spotify for 7 years or so now and i’m so sick of all the ads. After every update there seems to be an: oops, sorry, you have ads now. Podcasts are filled with ads. I was just listening to a podcast where they shoved in 3 ads mid-sentence. How long until musicians put ads in their songs. I’m just so sick of it.

  • ickplant@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Podcasts will have ads no matter where you listen to them. That’s not Spotify inserting them, it’s the podcasts. I pay for a family subscription to Spotify, and I never get ads in between songs, not after updates or anything.

    • kn33@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      That’s not Spotify inserting them, it’s the podcasts.

      The podcast may elect whether or not to include it, but it’s definitely Spotify performing the legwork. That is unless you think it’s a coincidence that I (with my Spotify home address set to Iowa) got an ad from the Iowa HHS on a podcast by a British podcaster.

      • ickplant@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        It’s called dynamic ad insertion, and it’s the podcast hosts choosing to insert ads into their podcasts. I know this because I have a podcast with no ads.

        • kn33@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Spotify is giving them that choice. It should say that it won’t run ads for premium users - only free ones.

          • ickplant@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            It’s not Spotify that’s “giving them that choice.” It’s the podcast distributor. For example, I use Red Circle, and I can choose to insert ads through them. Podcasts have the same ads regardless of the platform they are on. It’s not Spotify, it’s the podcasts. I don’t like ads either…

            • kn33@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              How does it give me location specific ads if Spotify isn’t inserting the ad for them?

              • misophist@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                both things are true. The decision to include an ad is made by the podcast producer, but the dynamic ad is facilitated through Spotify’s dynamic ad platform. Podcast producers have been including paid sponsorships in podcasts in addition to inserting ads in their podcasts. For the inserted ads, they will work with the podcast platforms to insert dynamic ads if the platform supports it (like spotify) or generic baked-in ads if the platform doesn’t support it. Either way, inclusion of these ads is controlled by the producer, not the platform, so paying to remove platform-controlled ads won’t remove these ads. If you want your podcast with no ads at all, you may need to see if the producer offers an ad-free version (possibly through a proprietary paid platform like patreon).

      • wheeldawg@sh.itjust.works
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        11 months ago

        Unless they’re talking about ads that the podcasters themselves at to the recording. They’re not all inserted by whatever platform you get them from. This is what they’re referring to.

    • BruceTwarzen@kbin.socialOP
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      11 months ago

      @ickplant sometimes they are. American podcast doesn’t sometimes have german ads. And if they do, fuck them. That’s like paying for netflix but some movies still have ads.

      • ickplant@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        But it’s literally the podcast hosts choosing to insert ads. Not Spotify. It would be like blaming Netflix because you didn’t like what the characters are wearing on one of the movies.

  • SgtAStrawberry@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Are you sure it’s not just the podcasters that put ads on thier pods?

    I have had Spotify premium basically seance launch and haven’t heard a singel ad from them seance.

    But I have never really listened to any pods.

    • BruceTwarzen@kbin.socialOP
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      11 months ago

      @SgtAStrawberry some of them are. But some doesn’t have ads and when i re-listen to them they have german ads that weren’t there before. Also i don’t really care, if i pay for no ads then i pay for no ads

      • SgtAStrawberry@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        That I totally understand. I just wanted to make it clear what type of ads we were talking about. I heard some people put them in the same category or even put recommendations in too. And while I understand the logic, about the two types of ads, Spotify, YouTube and similar can’t really do much about the ads put in by the creator.

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
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    11 months ago

    I’ve been paying for Spotify for about the same length of time and I still haven’t heard a single ad placed by Spotify since going Premium. Any ads I’ve heard in podcasts are like the sponsored segments on a YouTube video; put there by the people making the podcast, not by Spotify and exist in the podcast no matter what source you got it from.

    • dingus@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      It’s weird, I’ve seen quite a few posts like the OP relatively recently complaining about how Spotify premium suddenly has ads now. Yet I’ve had a premium subscription for 10 year now (rip my $$$) and have yet to hear a single ad since subbing. Well, unless it’s a sponsored segment placed in there by the creator.

      Maybe it’s because I don’t listen to many podcasts? But even when I have, I have literally never heard a Spotify ad. Maybe the specific podcasts I’ve listened to don’t have the “feature” that OP describes.

      Maybe it’s regional? Maybe it’s an error? Maybe OP doesn’t recognize ads placed there by the content creator?

      • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
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        11 months ago

        Could even be their subscription lapsed and they somehow didn’t notice. It has, occasionally, not popped up with the big red banner telling me my payment didn’t go through and I only knew something was wrong because I get ads and can’t play the exact song I want because I was no longer using Premium.

  • phillaholic@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    What ads are you talking about? Music on Premium/Family has no audio ads period. The home screen offers music to listen to, but most are either genres you listen to, or overall popular items. I wouldn’t lump these in with ads for paper towels or fast food etc.

    Podcasts are free and ad-supported. You might be able to get ad-free if you go out to each producer and subscribe. I think Wonderly did that maybe?

  • TJA!@sh.itjust.works
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    11 months ago

    If you want to listen to podcasts, you should use a podcast app. Not an ad service with podcast functionality.

    Podcasts are free (most of them). You can use any podcast app you like. I like poket casts, but you can find about 100 other apps.

    • LinkOpensChest.wav@lemmy.one
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      11 months ago

      I second Spotube. I actually do pay for Spotify, but I’ve considered moving to Spotube entirely. I was really impressed when I tried it.

        • LinkOpensChest.wav@lemmy.one
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          11 months ago

          Ok so if you connected your Spotify account, then it should have your saved playlists and so forth in your library. You can stream or even download these tracks, just like with Spotify Premium. You should also be able to create new playlists/save content to your library.

          It even has some features that Spotify doesn’t have. For example, you can totally block specific artists. So like for me, I fucking hate The Dwarves, and Spotify always recommends them to me. On Spotube, I was able to block them. (I’d have to refresh my memory on how.)

          The catch is, it doesn’t use actual content from Spotify at all. Instead, it grabs these tracks from YouTube’s API. At least, that’s how it worked when I used it. If you try to download too much content at once, it will make you confirm that you understand that your ISP or someone might notice and take action, so … download judiciously, I guess?

          I usually have a pretty solid mobile data connection, so I never bothered with downloading.

          • Varcour@lemm.ee
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            11 months ago

            Wait, why do I need a Spotify account if it grabs everything from Youtube anyway?

          • HATEFISH@midwest.social
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            11 months ago

            Why do you hate the Dwarves so much? I think I’ve only heard a song but a buddy wears a shirt from time to time.

            • LinkOpensChest.wav@lemmy.one
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              11 months ago

              They were violent pricks at their shows. They’d beat the shit out of random people at their shows just to be edgy.

              I come from the school of showing unity, support, and mutual aid. Dancing at shows was one thing, but deliberately hurting people is fucked up imo.

                • LinkOpensChest.wav@lemmy.one
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                  11 months ago

                  It always used to surprise me that bands like Nirvana would play with the Dwarves, considering their reputation and actions at shows

    • Flaky@iusearchlinux.fyi
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      11 months ago

      Used both (currently on AM but used Deezer thanks to a free trial).

      They both have their exclusives and they might do something in relation to, say, a new album launch, but I’ve not had any blatant advertising on either of them. Apple’s Podcast app on iOS is free, if they have an iPhone.

  • sunbytes@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    A lot of podcasters have an ad-free subscription service you can get through their patreon.

    It might be worth tracking these down individually.

  • A_Toasty_Strudel@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    YouTube music’s paid service has no ads, and you also get no ads on regular ol’ YouTube under the same sub as well.

    • ExcursionInversion@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Music streaming + no ads on YouTube on any device without doing anything is so nice. If that perk gets dropped I’ll probably drop YouTube music completely.

    • DoomBot5@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Too bad it still sucks years after killing it’s better brother, Play Music. Only reason I still pay is for YouTube premium

  • asudox@lemmy.worldM
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    11 months ago

    InnerTune is great. It uses YT music. You can download musics from there. You can also login with your YT account to access your playlists. I am using it daily.