If you’re an avid Spotify user then you may have run into its sponsored recommendations in the home page – and if you’re like me and you haven’t, then consider yourself among the lucky ones.
In short, sponsored recommendations are small pop-ups in your home page that show music suggestions but in ad-like form, and they’ve been rubbing Spotify users the wrong way recently – especially those who pay for Premium subscriptions.
A recent Reddit post about sponsored recommendations (see below) garnered over a hundred responses, with users sharing their thoughts about sponsored recommendations and when and where they appear. Despite not explicitly stating how users can opt-out, there is a way around it.
Ads for a service you pay to be add free for is absolutely diabolical. from r/truespotify
To stop seeing sponsored content, all you have to do is go into Spotify on your desktop (you can’t do this in the app) and head to the ‘Account’ section. From there, go to ‘Account privacy’ and disable the ‘Tailored ads’ toggle, and you should be free of sponsored music suggestions.
While some users don’t seem to be too bothered about seeing sponsored recommendations, they’ve proven to be a huge turn-off for others, and those who aren’t fans have shared three main objections in the above Reddit thread.
Though some Spotify users on Reddit have been open to sponsored music recommendations, a common complaint from others is coming across sponsored content from artists they’ve never engaged with – classic Spotify behavior.
Comment from r/truespotify
One user (shown above) highlighted that the sponsored recommendation pop-up forced new music from bigger artists such as Drake and Taylor Swift in their home page, despite that user having never streamed their music, which seems a little presumptuous to say the least
These recommended slots are evidently reserved for more popular artists who can afford to pay Spotify, resulting in their music being promoted at the expense of rising artists that might otherwise appear in users’ recommendations. That said, Spotify showed sponsored content from artists users actually follow and stream, it wouldn’t be as much of an issue.
2. Spotify doesn’t state this when you sign up to Premium
Another argument that paying Spotify users have raised is that when you sign up for a Spotify membership, there’s no mention in the sign-up process that users may run into sponsored recommendations.
Comment from r/truespotify
However, some users have said they only care about ad-free music playback, and say that sponsored recommendations are a reasonable intrusion. On the other hand, others strongly believe all areas of the Spotify ecosystem, including podcasts and the home page itself, should be free of sponsored content. I stand with the latter.
If there’s one thing that Spotify fans can collectively agree on, it’s the importance of supporting smaller artists, which I mentioned earlier, and users have pointed out that sponsored recommendations push out upcoming music releases that users have already pre-saved as well as songs from artists they already follow.
However, there’s another factor that seems to be tied in with how sponsored music suggestions are presented: TikTok.
Comment from r/truespotify
There’s no denying that social media circulation plays a big part in promoting new music – take the latest Addison Rae album for example, which is currently doing the rounds on social media, and which is mentioned in the Reddit post.
This is something that users have previously expressed disappointment about online, highlighting their experiences with Spotify cluttering their playlists with viral hits and pushing its vertical, TikTok-style video content. Now, it could be possible that viral music is interfering with sponsored recommendations.
Given the amount of users that have come forward to share their frustration with sponsored content, it’s only fair for Spotify to come forward and address these concerns. That will be a testament to how much it cares about its subscribers, but we all know what the outcome will be.
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rowan.davies@futurenet.com (Rowan Davies)
