If you are an avid Spotify user, you may have run into its sponsored recommendations on the homepage – and if you are like me and you have not, then consider yourself among the lucky ones.
In short, sponsored recommendations are small pop-ups on your homepage showing music suggestions, but in ad-like form, and they have the rubbing of Spotify users in the wrong way recently-Ilike those who pay for premium subscriptions.
A recent Reddit post on sponsored recommendations (see below) collected over a hundred answers, with users who shared their thoughts on sponsored recommendations and when and where they appear. Despite not explicitly indicating how users can opt out, there is a way around it.
Ads for a service you pay to be added for free is absolutely diabolic. From R/TreeStotify
To stop seeing sponsored content is all you need to do in Spotify on your desktop (you can’t do this in the app) and go to the ‘Account’ section. From there, go to ‘Account Privacy’ and disable the ‘tailor -made ads’ trains and you must be free of sponsored music suggestions.
While some users do not appear to be too bothered by seeing sponsored recommendations, they have proven to be a huge extinguishing for others and those who are not fans have shared three main objections in the above-mentioned Reddit thread.
Although some Spotify users on Reddit have been open to sponsored music recommendations, a common complaint comes from others across sponsored content from artists they have never engaged in -classic Spotify behavior.
Comment from R/Trustotify
A user (shown above) emphasized that the sponsored recommendation pop-up forced new music from larger artists like Drake and Taylor Swift on their website, despite the user never streaming their music, which seems a bit presumed to say the least
These recommended slots are obviously reserved for more popular artists who can afford to pay Spotify, resulting in their music being promoted at the expense of rising artists that can otherwise be shown in users’ recommendations. That said, Spotify sponsored content from artist users actually showed and stream, that wouldn’t be that much of a problem.
2. Spotify does not indicate this when you sign up for Premium
Another argument that paying Spotify users have raised is that when you sign up for a Spotify membership, there is no publicity in the registration process that users can run into sponsored recommendations.
Comment from R/Trustotify
However, some users have said that they are only interested in ad -free music playback and say that sponsored recommendations are a reasonable intrusion. On the other hand, others strongly believe that all areas of the Spotify ecosystem, including podcasts and the website itself, must be free of sponsored content. I stand with the latter.
If there is one thing that Spotify fans can collectively agree on, it is the importance of supporting smaller artists that I mentioned earlier, and users have pointed out that sponsored recommendations are pushing out upcoming music releases that users have already previously, as well as songs from artists they are already following.
However, there is another factor that appears to be tied to how sponsored music suggestions are presented: Tiktok.
Comment from R/Trustotify
No one denies that social media circulation plays a major role in promoting new music – taking the latest Addison Rae album, for example, who are currently making the rounds on social media and mentioned in the Reddit Post.
This is something that users have previously expressed disappointment over online, highlighting their experiences with Spotify messed up their playlists with viral hits and pushes its vertical tiktok-style video content. Now it may be possible that viral music interferes with sponsored recommendations.
Given the amount of users who have come forward to share their frustration with sponsored content, it is only fair for Spotify to come forward and tackle these concerns. It will be a testimony to how much it is interested in its subscribers, but we all know what the result will be.
