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If you hear ads on Spotify despite having a premium subscription, something is wrong. After all, you are paying for ad-free streaming.
What you can do about ads despite Spotify Premium
Users who have a Premium account on Spotify should actually benefit from ad-free streaming. If you still have to put up with ads on the streaming service, the problem could lie elsewhere.
- Check your Spotify account under your profile picture – “Settings and privacy” – then “Account” and “Your subscription” to see if your Premium subscription is still active or if, for some reason, you are still on the basic version. If the latter is the case, you will need to upgrade to Premium again if you do not want to hear ads.
- Pay attention to where the ads appear. If you are a Premium customer, they should not appear between individual tracks. However, if you hear ads within a podcast, for example, these are part of the audio track and cannot be hidden because the podcast operators earn money from them.
- If you have a premium subscription and the ads between tracks do not stop, it may help to log out of Spotify and then log back in several times. This is due to a technical error on Spotify’s part that was already known in February 2025.
- If this does not work, try uninstalling the app and reinstalling it on your smartphone to fix the problem.
- If these steps do not help, contact Spotify customer service and describe exactly when you heard the ads.
Listen to podcasts without ads
Even as a Spotify Premium user, you may experience ad breaks in podcasts. The streaming service has no control over this.
- Podcasting takes time, effort, and often money (equipment, hosting, editing). Advertising is one of the main ways to recoup these costs, especially when the podcast is offered for free. That’s why many popular podcasts feature commercial breaks.
- However, many podcasters offer exclusive, ad-free episodes or bonus episodes in exchange for monthly support via Patreon.
- There are podcasts that deliberately refrain from advertising or are funded by foundations (e.g., public broadcasters such as Deutschlandfunk or the BBC). Many indie podcasters also do this on principle.
