[dsco]

I wish I could do this for Spotify. Paid plans still include ads.

They cram ads into podcast episodes which themselves also have ads, so you'll get the read ads + Spotify's local ads + Spotify laughs all the way to the bank.

I believe over time not having ads will be a thing of the past, and you'll instead pay for fewer ads. Like where else are people going to go for exclusive content?

[HelloMcFly]

I've never heard an ad on Spotify, so this is true only for podcasts then, correct? In that case I can at least be thankful that Spotify is the worst option for listening to podcasts.

[qwerpy]

I canceled my Spotify premium subscription because they showed sponsored content in the app. Not as egregious as jamming ads in between songs, but I still don’t want to have to scroll past a “sponsored” UI element to get to what I’m actually interested in.

Moved to Apple Music and so far so good.

[JKCalhoun]

Just buy the content and play it from your local devices. I use streaming simply for "auditioning" new music (and there are podcasts, YouTube channels that do that without a subscription, FWIW). I prefer then to buy the tracks from Bandcamp. Hopefully the artists get a bigger slice of the revenue that way.

[Hamuko]

I don't really listen to much Spotify but I feel like just the free plan in Firefox with uBlock Origin gave me an ad-free experience the last time I used it.

[jvolkman]

YouTube premium also includes ad-free YouTube Music. Yes there are still sponsorships in podcasts as usual, but no injected ads.

[FuriouslyAdrift]

I highly recommend Radiooooo. They're DJ curated and very good. Dirt cheap for what you get.

[timcobb]

> Spotify laughs all the way to the bank

FWIW, I don't think Spotify makes much, if any, money lol

[nicholassmith]

Net profit was €1.14bn for 2024, which feels like a reasonable amount of money.

[mrweasel]

Sadly I think we're in need of the AriZona Iced Tea of streaming. A company that sells a streaming service, at a fixed price, makes a small profit and is happy with that profit.

The issue is that the current streaming services have cost billions to develop and companies and investors want that money back, times a 100. The money hasn't gone into a long term product that people will be happy with for decades, it has gone into a product that needs to return large chunk of money in a short time frame (and cover up other failed ventures).

[JoshTriplett]

The issue is that such a company either needs to make their own first-party content, or pay licensing fees for third-party content, and the companies those license fees are paid to are always looking to either cut out the middle service in favor of their own or increase what they're charging.

[maweki]

> I don't think Spotify makes much, if any, money

per their financial statements, about 150Mio in operating profits per quarter. Gross profit of 1.000Mio per quarter.

I'd like to have that kind of "not much money"